Fairhaven town meeting votes Nov. 17 on a license plate reader ban and eight other articles, with a preview Thursday
The final warrant would also move $253,156 in sewer money and $30,348 for the accounting office, re-adopt the retiree benefits trust and make the Conservation Commission the sole holder of a conservation restriction on 117 acres on Weeden Road.
FAIRHAVEN Fairhaven holds a public preview Thursday night of the nine articles its elected town meeting members will vote on Nov. 17, including a citizens petition to ban automated license plate readers in town.
The preview starts at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in the Walter Silveira Auditorium at Elizabeth I. Hastings Middle School, 30 School St., and airs live on Channel 97 and FairhavenTV.com. New town meeting members have an orientation at 6 p.m., and precinct meetings begin at 6:45 p.m. in classrooms the town will post.
The vote itself is Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. in the same auditorium. Each article needs a simple majority, since the warrant calls for a majority unless an article states otherwise and none of the nine does.
The money articles
Article 1, filed by the Fairhaven School Department, would spend $168,628.08 in insurance money to repair flood damage the 2026 blizzard caused at an elementary school, the warrant says. A yes vote puts the insurance payment toward the repairs; the article does not name the school.
Article 4, from the Board of Public Works, would move $253,156 left over from West Island Treatment Plant capital improvements, approved at the Oct. 20, 2020, Special Town Meeting, into the sewer nitrogen plant account approved in June 2022. The warrant files it under sewer enterprise funds, which its glossary describes as money recovered through user fees rather than taxes.
Article 5, from the Select Board, would shift $30,348 in unspent wage and salary reserves from the May 2025 annual town meeting into the Accounting Department's salaries for the budget year that began July 1. The warrant says the money fully funds the assistant town accountant position and pays the costs of hiring a new town accountant.
Article 2, filed by the Police Department, asks members to waive Section 50-9 of the town bylaws, the section on collective bargaining agreements, under its subsection F, and to fund the dispatch union's memorandum of agreement, and the warrant lists no dollar figure for it.
Land, a water tower and retiree benefits
Article 3 would let the Board of Public Works lease space on the water tower off Sconticut Neck Road, and ground space on the same parcel, for communications equipment for up to 25 years, according to the warrant, which titles the article as a request to let a lessee place an antenna there.
Article 6, from the Conservation Commission, would have the commission take over the Buzzards Bay Coalition's interest in a conservation restriction on 117 acres on Weeden Road, listed in the warrant as DeNormandie Farm West, making the commission the restriction's only holder, with the Select Board's approval.
Article 7, from the treasurer and collector, asks members to re-adopt the state law that sets up a trust fund for retiree health and life insurance costs and to name the treasurer as its trustee. A note in the warrant says Fairhaven adopted the law in 2011 but never fully carried out a trust agreement after that vote. Treasurer and Collector Carla Mourao and Town Accountant Anne Carreiro went over the article with the Select Board on Oct. 26, and the board had questions about the investment portfolio, according to its Nov. 9 packet.
Article 8, from the Special Bylaw Review Committee, would rewrite parts of the general bylaws to match the town charter, among them the sections on the Finance Committee, the Department of Finance, the Capital Planning Committee and the Planning Board, with the changes marked in an appendix to the warrant.
The license plate reader petition
Article 9, a citizens petition listed under the name Joseph Russell, would add a bylaw barring every town department, the Police Department included, from buying, leasing, accepting as a grant or donation, installing or running automated license plate reader systems on public ways or town property.
The bylaw would also bar renewing or extending any current contract with a plate reader vendor, naming Flock Safety as one example. An existing agreement could run to the end of its term, after which cameras and equipment on town poles or property would have to come down within 30 days and vendors would be told to delete the data, except records state law or a court order requires the town to keep.
The petition keeps body cameras, dashboard cameras and ordinary security cameras without plate recognition, and it allows targeted searches of vehicle records under a court search warrant or during an emergency that threatens death or serious injury, such as an AMBER Alert. It would also bar automatic sharing of the town's plate data with out-of-state police or federal civil enforcement agencies, citing the state's 2022 Shield Law.
We reported on the draft of this warrant, as the Select Board reviewed it on Oct. 13, in an earlier story.
Who votes and how to follow along
Fairhaven runs a representative town meeting, so the votes are cast by town meeting members elected from the town's precincts under the town charter. Questions about the articles go to the Select Board and Town Administrator's office, the warrant says.
The Select Board signed the warrant on Oct. 13: Chair Andrew Romano, Vice Chair Natalie A. Mello, Clerk Pamela Kuechler, Andrew B. Saunders and Richard F. Trapilo. South Coast 360 will report how members vote on each article on Nov. 17.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
Every fact comes from the final Special Town Meeting warrant book on the Town of Fairhaven website, the town's Facebook notice for the preview posted Nov. 10, and the Select Board's Nov. 9 agenda and packet. We read the warrant and the notice on Nov. 11 and the board records on Nov. 5. Dollar amounts are written as the warrant gives them. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. Not heard: this preview rests on the posted record, and no one was asked for comment.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (4)
- Town of Fairhaven, Warrant for the Special Town Meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026 (2026.11.17 STM Warrant Book, final, 10 pages)Town of Fairhaven, linked from the Town Meeting Warrants page; signed by the Select Board Oct. 13, 2026; file dated Oct. 19, 2026. All nine articles, sponsors and dollar amounts, the majority vote line, the Article 7 note, the Article 9 petition text and summary, the posting places and the glossary. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
- Town of Fairhaven, MA, Facebook post, "SPECIAL TOWN MEETING PREVIEW"Town of Fairhaven, posted Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. Preview Nov. 12 at 7 p.m., Walter Silveira Auditorium, Elizabeth Hastings Middle School, 30 School St.; live on Channel 97 and FairhavenTV.com; new member orientation 6 p.m.; precinct meetings 6:45 p.m. Read Nov. 11, 2026.
- Fairhaven Select Board agenda, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026 (clerk stamp Nov. 5)Town of Fairhaven. Item H: preview Nov. 12, Special Town Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m.; item A2, investment portfolio presentation by Bartholomew and Company. Read Nov. 5, 2026, and rechecked against our saved text Nov. 11, 2026.
- Fairhaven Select Board packet, Nov. 9, 2026, agenda addendumTown of Fairhaven. Page 2: the treasurer and collector and the town accountant addressed Special Town Meeting Article 7 at the board's Oct. 26 meeting, and the board had questions about the investment portfolio. Read Nov. 5, 2026, and rechecked against our saved text Nov. 11, 2026.