ANDOVER — Residents will vote on a 59-article warrant at their March 21 annual town meeting, Board of Selectmen Chairman Keith Farrington said Thursday evening.
The 2015-16 budget is likely to be slightly higher than this year’s, one town employee said, depending how much money is recommended to run the Andover Elementary School.
Residents voted in September 2014 to withdraw from School Administrative District 44 and fund Andover Elementary School by themselves.
An article that is likely to produce the most discussion is 57, which asks for the town to amend sections of the Employee Policy Ordinance, including removing a paragraph that would allow regular part-time employees to receive health insurance coverage.
The ordinance states that regular part-time employees, classified as employees who work 20 or more hours a week, are eligible for health insurance coverage as provided through the town’s health insurance provider, and that the town will pay 70 percent of the cost of the premium for a single subscriber.
Selectmen drafted Article 58 as a second option. It asks for the ordinance to be grandfathered for all regular part-time employees who were employed before March 1, 2015, and that all employees hired after March 1, 2015, will not be eligible for health insurance benefits.
Article 59 asks that all full-time, regular part-time and salaried employees remain eligible for a life insurance plan equal to at least one year of the employee’s salary and an income protection plan at no cost to the employee.
Farrington said Article 59 would include Treasurer Barbara Simmons, who is a salaried employee and not currently included under the town’s life insurance and wage protection plan.
Another article on the warrant asks residents if they wish to raise and appropriate $2,500 for legal fees to represent the town in Probate Court in order to gain legal access to the Cemetery Trust account.
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