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.