SHELBURNE — Voters will be asked to take care of a few administrative tasks, including transferring opioid settlement funds to new accounts and setting priorities for Community Preservation Act funding, during a Special Town Meeting on April 22.

Article 1 will ask voters to rescind a previous vote from 2024 that created the Opioid Settlement Stabilization Fund. Then, in Article 2, voters will be asked to create a special revenue account for the same pool of funding.

Spending funds held in a stabilization account requires a Town Meeting vote, whereas town officials can spend funds in a special revenue account without a Town Meeting vote as long as the expenditure meets the criteria set for the account.

Town Administrator Terry Narkewicz told the Selectboard last week that the town had programs and projects it could use the funding for, but has not been able to do so because the funds are held in a stabilization account.

“With the money going into a special revenue fund, we can start paying bills. The [Franklin Regional Council of Governments] partnered with opioid educational groups and has committed funding, and I have two bills we can’t pay yet because it’s in a dedicated stabilization account,” Narkewicz said. “Once it gets transferred to a special revenue fund, we can pay the money out as programs submit their invoices.”

Article 3 will ask voters to approve splitting the town’s Community Preservation Act funding into a few different areas, with a total of $81,000 going to support affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space and recreation. Selectboard Chair Rick LaPierre said the vote to split the funds should have occurred last year when the town’s Community Preservation Fund was created, and voters will need to approve it before Annual Town Meeting so the Community Preservation Committee can present projects at that time for voters to consider.

“At our Town Meeting, being newbies, we failed to split into the three different categories as required,” LaPierre said. “Our accountant caught the error and noted that it would need to be corrected prior to our next Annual Town Meeting.”

Per state regulations, a Community Preservation Fund must have at least 10% of its funding support historic preservation, at least 10% support affordable housing, and at least 10% be allocated toward open space and recreation projects. Another 5% can be used for administrative costs.

The majority of Shelburne voters at the polls in November 2022 supported adopting the Community Preservation Act, thus adding a 3% surcharge on property taxes that can be used to support projects in those three categories. Shelburne chose to add a 3% tax because this qualifies the town for 100% matching funds from the state. In May 2024, the town then approved the creation of a Community Preservation Committee that is tasked with overseeing funding applications and making recommendations on which projects to fund.

Will Flanders, chair of the Community Preservation Committee, said the town has $250,000 in funding and plans to split the money equally among the three categories, with a small amount reserved for any administrative costs.

The Community Preservation Committee does not plan on spending all the available funds this year, but has four projects it plans to recommend during Annual Town Meeting in May: a new playground at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary School, a new elevator for Arms Library, historic tombstone restoration at the Old Village Road cemetery and a bulletin board for Cowell Gym.

The Selectboard voted unanimously to approve the three-article warrant, with plans to hold the Special Town Meeting on Tuesday, April 22, at Buckland-Shelburne Elementary, pending the availability of the space.