With less than two percent of Andover’s 27,000 registered voters on hand, Annual Town Meeting cruised through 23 of the 35 articles on the 2025 warrant Tuesday.
Town meeting will resume at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Collins Center at Andover High School. Still to be decided is the creation of a Central Street Historic District, a repeal of the Ballardvale Historic District, and approval of new outdoor water use restrictions.
There were about 440 voters on hand at the start of town meeting Tuesday, and the number dwindled over the course of the three hour, 20-minute session.
Much of Tuesday’s session was devoted to financial articles that are typically passed with little debate. Andover’s legislative body approved operating budgets for the town and Andover Public Schools, as well as $450,000 to close a special education funding gap in the school district’s budget. That approval likely saved the district from having to lay off the equivalent of five full-time employees, officials said.
One of the most-heavily debated articles Tuesday was a proposal by former select board member Chris Huntress to stiffen the requirements for citizens to petition the select board to call a special town meeting. The article, which passed after a failed attempt to amend it, will require people petitioning for a special town meeting to get signatures from 5 percent of Andover’s registered voters, up from the former requirement of 200 signatures. The article also gives the select board 90 days to call a special town meeting, up from the current 45 days.
The amendment, which narrowly failed, would have set the requirement at 400 signatures.