Carver Select Board approves six special town meeting warrant articles, rejects water district funding

CARVER -- September 9, 2025, Carver Select Board loads special town meeting warrant with six articles, rejects water district funding request. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to place articles covering a $1.69 million annual Cranberry Point Energy Storage payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement, a Green Business Park earth removal zoning change, an MBTA Communities Act housing district at 30-32 West Street, a veterans tax exemption expansion, a $9,268 fire department salary appropriation, and a $37,630.25 municipal wells equipment appropriation on the warrant for the fall special town meeting. Consultant Joe Roach and attorney Matt Thomas described the Cranberry Point deal, the first battery storage PILOT negotiated to completion in Massachusetts, as yielding a guaranteed $1.69 million annually for 20 years, down from an earlier $1.9 million estimate after roughly $20 million in Eversource substation value was removed from the project's assessed valuation; combined with real estate and Eversource personal property taxes, total annual revenue to the town is projected at approximately $2.1 million. The board voted unanimously to reject a $500,000 North Carver Water District plant study article, siding with Town Administrator Glenn Cannon, who said a water engineering firm quoted a proper scoping study at $40,000 to $50,000 and that the article had bypassed capital outlay and finance committee review. Two non-binding referendum articles on selling or dissolving the Carver-Marion-Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District were placed on the warrant without a recommendation, pending a purchase price negotiation with Wareham scheduled for the following evening.