Rehoboth Town Meeting Scheduled for December

In spite of the coronavirus pandemic, a special town meeting will be held on December 1 at the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School in North Dighton.

Selectmen chairman Skip Vadnais explained the state’s Department of Revenue was requiring the town to hold a “financial town meeting” to set the tax rate.

“We have no choice, we’ve been ordered to do so,” Vadnais said Tuesday.
The meeting cannot be held virtually. The articles will only be pertaining to financial matters and nothing else.

The board voted in June to postpone the annual town meeting due to uncertainty surrounding the state budget. The new fiscal year began July 1.

Last August, in a discussion with Town Moderator William Cute, Finance Committee Chairman Michael Deignan, and Town Clerk Laura Schwall, the board said the meeting would not be held until there is a vaccine for coronavirus.

Cute called the idea of an indoor meeting “ludicrous” because of a lack of seating in the auditorium at the high school and suggested the school’s athletic field would have to be used instead.

Cute explained senior citizens would be putting themselves at risk of catching Covid-19.

“I don’t want to put one citizen in this town in jeopardy,” Cute added. “I don’t want that on my conscience.”

Vadnais said the board will be working with Cute and the town’s legal counsel on holding an abbreviated meeting.

More information will be provided in mid-November during a financial summit featuring Cute and Deignan, Vadnais added.