Middleborough town meeting Nov. 9 will vote on a data center ban, a plate reader ban and the Nichols Middle School roof

SOUTH COAST Middleborough voters will decide Monday, Nov. 9, whether to ban data centers anywhere in town, whether to end the Police Department's use of Flock license plate cameras and how to pay for repairing the roof at John T. Nichols Middle School. The Select Board's 24-article Fall Special Town Meeting warrant also asks for $1,103,129 more for the Bristol Plymouth Regional High School assessment and $1.1 million in borrowing for a sewer main on Wood Street.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Middleborough High School auditorium, 71 E. Grove St. Middleborough runs an open town meeting, so any registered voter can attend and vote. The town clerk's certification of the June 1 Annual Town Meeting put the required quorum for that meeting at 150 registered voters. The Select Board pushed the meeting back from Oct. 19 to add articles, Nemasket Week reported.

A ban on data centers

Article 14, from the Planning Board, adds "Data Centers" to the zoning table of uses with an N, for not allowed, in all 10 of the town's zoning districts. The bylaw defines a data center as buildings mainly used to house computer servers, storage and networking equipment, along with their cooling systems, substations and backup generators, and says one "shall not be considered an Office, Warehouse, Manufacturing, or Research use." Leeann Bradley, the town's planning director, called it a "preemptive" step ahead of any proposal, Nemasket Week reported. The Planning Board's legal notice set its public hearing on the bylaw for Oct. 6, and a zoning change needs a two-thirds vote of town meeting under state law.

Taunton's City Council voted in October to ban data centers and add a one-year moratorium.

Article 20, also from the Planning Board, sets rules for battery energy storage. Systems of 100 kilowatt-hours or less would be allowed everywhere. Larger ones would need a Planning Board special permit and could go only in the General Use A district, with an 8-foot fence, a decommissioning fund, an emergency plan filed with the Fire Department and an operator able to be on site within two hours of a call from the fire or police chief.

Ending the plate reader cameras

Article 23 is a citizens' petition. It would bar any town officer, employee or contractor from buying, operating or using an automated license plate reader, "including but not limited to any system provided by Flock Safety." Existing contracts would end at the earliest possible date and the cameras would come down. Police would have to delete all stored plate data within 30 days and certify that to the Select Board, and past data could go to other agencies, federal ones included, only under a Massachusetts court order or warrant. Ordinary traffic and red-light cameras that keep no location history would be exempt. The petition says its purpose is to protect residents' privacy and keep the town out of "nationwide warrantless surveillance networks."

Former School Committee member Richard Oakley filed the petition and did not answer the paper's requests for comment, Nemasket Week reported. Police Chief Robert Ferreira Jr. told the paper the department has run Flock cameras for about three years, has four, one out of service after vandalism, and finds them "a valuable tool" for investigations. He said the data is shared nationwide but that federal agencies such as ICE do not have access to it, and that he will ask voters to reject the bylaw. Town counsel told the Select Board the bylaw could conflict with state law or the town charter, the paper reported. A general bylaw needs a simple majority and takes effect only after the attorney general approves it or lets 90 days pass without acting.

Lakeville votes on its own plate reader ban Nov. 18. Read SC360's Lakeville warrant story. New Bedford's City Council gave final passage Oct. 22 to an ordinance barring the city from using the cameras, and Mayor Jon Mitchell has said he will veto it.

The Nichols roof

Article 21, from the School Committee, would pay for repairing or replacing the roof at Nichols Middle School, 112 Tiger Drive, by taxation, available funds or borrowing. The warrant leaves the amount blank. It says the Massachusetts School Building Authority's grant cannot exceed 58.37% of eligible costs and that anything above the grant is the town's alone. The authority's board voted Oct. 28 to provide $2,049,369 toward an estimated $3.8 million project, leaving the town about $1.7 million, Nemasket Week reported. Moisture has saturated the insulation of the 28-year-old roof and shingles have been damaged and fallen off, the paper reported.

The money articles

Article 2 adds $1,103,129 to the Bristol Plymouth assessment and the town's share of district debt voted in June: $1,061,571 from the Debt Stabilization Fund and $41,558 from other sources. Interim Town Manager Robert Nunes, who asked the Select Board to push the meeting back to add the article, said the original budget for this fiscal year did not include the extra money, Nemasket Week reported. Article 3 takes $576,041 from water reserves and Article 4 takes $105,906 from sanitation reserves to cover shortfalls from the year that ended June 30. Article 5 asks $161,769.29 to close a COVID-19 account deficit left when federal reimbursements came in lower than expected.

Articles 6 and 7 cut the indirect costs charged to the water budget from $1,611,355 to $1,296,636 and to the wastewater budget from $1,865,206 to $883,292. Other requests include $200,000 for the retiree health benefits trust, $25,000 for sanitation and $15,000 for water to cover higher fuel costs, and $16,920 in bills from earlier years. The Police Department asks for $56,366.42 in sick leave buybacks for two retiring employees, and Public Works asks for $25,000 for stormwater work the EPA and the state Department of Environmental Protection require.

Article 17 would borrow $1.1 million to replace the sewer force main on Wood Street between the Route 495 bridge and West Grove Street, with the town's stated intent that wastewater enterprise revenue pay the debt first. Article 18 adds $130,000 to the $200,000 voted in 2024 for slide gates at the wastewater plant, and Article 19 lets the Select Board sign water supply deals of more than two years with Carver and Bridgewater.

Also on the warrant

Article 15 would rezone about 26 acres off East Grove Street from Residence A to General Use. Article 16 accepts Morton Street and Grace Street, off Old Center Street, as public ways. Article 22 would stop requiring the town to publish warrants in a newspaper and instead post them at each post office, the public library, the town clerk's bulletin board and the town website, at least 14 days before a special town meeting. Article 24 would hand Nemasket Park on Wareham Street to the Park Commission for active recreation.

How to take part

Any registered Middleborough voter can attend and vote Monday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. Under state law, the three zoning articles, 14, 15 and 20, need a two-thirds vote, as does any borrowing and any money taken from the town's general Stabilization Fund. The Select Board meets at Town Hall, 10 Nickerson Ave., and the Planning Department is in the Town Hall Annex, 20 Center St.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.