ERVING — All nine articles on the warrant at Monday’s Special Town Meeting were approved in less than an hour, with the 41 voters in attendance agreeing to change the treasurer position from elected to appointed and giving the green light to transfers to pay for health insurance increases and the interest accrued on an Appellate Tax Board case.
The largest financial item was Article 5, which approved transferring $742,482 from the General Stabilization Account to cover the cost of interest on an Appellate Tax Board case over disputed valuations that was decided in October 2025 between the town of Erving and Northfield Mountain LLC. The town lost the case in court.
The article required a two-thirds majority vote, which was achieved with a 37-3 vote.
To offer voters some clarity, outgoing Principal Assessor Jacquelyn Boyden explained that the interest is from the cases that were settled for fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022. The interest accrued from the time the cases were filed and heard in court, to when the findings were made available to Erving. The award from the town to the company for these three years, for $2.4 million, was paid out of the Assessors Overlay Account in full.
“We still have a couple of years pending, so when we go to Town Meeting and ask for money in the overlay, the Department of Revenue wants us to have enough money in the overlay to cover anything that we might have to pay for an abatement,” Board of Assessors Chair Daniel Hammock explained to voters after summarizing “50 years worth of history” about the tax rate and how appraisals have been impacted by Northfield Mountain LLC, citing his desire to be transparent with voters about the article.
Article 8 sought to affirm that the town has $200,000 in matching funds for the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) project for a roof replacement and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) upgrades at Erving Elementary School. The town voted to appropriate this amount during the May 2025 Annual Town Meeting, with Erving School Committee Chair Mackensey Bailey clarifying that the vote was just to approve language that is required by the MSBA for the project, and it does not represent an additional $200,000 appropriation. This article passed by majority.
The final article of the evening, Article 9, asked voters to change the treasurer from an elected position to an appointed one. Voters had rejected this article in February 2015, and the vote comes back to voters at a time of transition for Treasurer Jennifer Watroba, who will not seek reelection when her term expires on June 30. Watroba was elected in 2023.
Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith, speaking on behalf of the board, said it’s important to ensure that the town has “strong financial management” of its money by having a qualified treasurer to replace Watroba. He also clarified that this is a two-part vote, with the same question going before voters during the town election later this year.
Hammock spoke in favor of passing the article, saying that his stance on the idea has changed due to the growing complexities of the treasurer’s position compared to a few years ago. He had voted to maintain the elected position in 2015. Article 9 would go on to pass by a majority vote.
Outside of these articles, voters also approved Article 6, to transfer a combined $340,000 from free cash and the Water Enterprise Fund to the General Fund Health Insurance line item to cover the rest of the fiscal year 2026 funding needed for health insurance from Oct. 1 through June 30, per the projection made by the Treasurer’s Office. Voters also authorized the Selectboard to sign a five-year agreement with a vendor for $6,000 per year for maintenance of police Tasers and equipment, to be paid using the police operating budget.