Greenville residents voted in favor of retaining Keno games in town at Town Meeting on Saturday morning.

The article, which was submitted by petition, called for a ballot vote to determine if residents wanted to withdraw the permission for Keno games to run in town, after last year’s Town Meeting had approved Keno.

Resident Allyson Wilkins spoke in favor of rescinding Keno approval, expressing her concern over the addictive nature of the game. She also noted that venues hosting Keno games only saw a small amount of the total money generated from Keno bets.

“Those who submitted the first warrant article had good intentions of raising money to keep the American Legion going. But Keno gambling gives only 8% of the money taken in to the host venue,” she said. “Many, many hundreds must be poured in before there would be an appreciable benefit to the host. I’ve been informed that, for this reason, the American Legion has found other sources of funding.”

Select Board Chair Carla Mary pushed back, saying, “The establishments get 8%, but it also gets people to come to the facilities,” noting that patrons generate additional revenue for the establishments aside from Keno. 

“I know the Legion has been looking at multiple different options to bring revenue into the town, or into their establishment – some of the things have worked, but I think there is still the intent to do Keno eventually,” Mary said, asking residents to take that into consideration when voting.

After several more comments from residents both for and against the game, residents ultimately voted against rescinding Keno in a 35-19 secret ballot vote.

The only other warrant article to draw any comments that morning was a proposal to allocate $20,000 to maintain the Fire Department’s ladder truck, which was manufactured in 1986. Resident Mark Winslow said that “when the ladder is inspected every year, the inspectors typically comment that, for its age, it’s in real good shape.”

Winslow added that Fire Chief Ben Buttrick intended to keep the truck in use in spite of its age, but had identified some areas that required body work. The funds raised by the proposed warrant article would go toward the necessary body work. Following Winslow’s comments, the town voted to approve the warrant article, with no residents voting against it.

All other articles passed with no amendments or discussion, including the operating budget of approximately $2.68 million.

The town also voted to appropriate $533,168 and $403,668 for the wastewater and water departments, respectively, with both sums to come from user revenues instead of taxation. Town Meeting approved $30,000 for public works equipment and Green Bridge improvements, with $10,000 coming from the Dec. 31, 2023, unassigned fund balance.

Additionally, $100,000 was split between five different expendable trust funds: $10,000 for the pool repair and improvements fund, $25,000 for the fire equipment fund, $5,000 for the police cruiser fund, $10,000 for the new fire station fund and $50,000 for the highway maintenance fund.

The town also voted to allocate $42,500 from the highway block grant to pay for the repair and reconstruction of town roads.

The appropriation of $73,804 to purchase and equip a new police cruiser, with $15,922 to come from the town of Temple, $23,882 to come from Greenfield’s police cruiser expendable trust fund and $34,000 to come from the police detail revolving fund, was also approved.

The town allocated $15,000 to be used in the purchase of fire equipment and $2,500 to upgrade communication equipment in the emergency management office, with both sums to come from the 2023 unassigned fund balance.

Town Meeting also agreed to modify the agents to spend the fire equipment expendable trust fund from both the Board of Selectmen and the fire wards to just the selectmen.