The phones of Belmont Town Meeting Members began pinging a notification from the Town Clerk’s Office less than two hours from the start of the last week of the annual Town Meeting on June 8.
“Urgent Update” – ATM (annual town meeting) and STM” read the 5:14 p.m. message. And many – if not most – members knew what was being revised, having been told that last-minute appraisal amounts would be coming in for a pair of articles authorizing payment for easement rights or the taking of property the meeting had voted to authorize the week before.
What was unexpected was how much the price tag attached to one of them would be…