1,075 Signatures Force Special Dollar Tree Meeting

It will be loud. It will be bright. It will drive down home values.

These are the complaints of those who could become neighbor's of Dollar Tree's one-million-square-foot distribution center on Stone Road.

In accordance, residents in the Rainbow area have united and collected more than one thousand signatures on a petition against the Town Council's decision to grant Dollar Tree a 40-percent tax abatement.

Pursuant to Windsor Town Charter Section 9-4, residents can make a push to reverse a Town Council decision by forcing the council to call a special town meeting, opening up the vote to Windsor residents.

Opponents of Dollar Tree's plans have done just that, surpassing the required number of petition signatures, which is 965.

All that now stands in the way of the Town Council's decision being reversed is the turnout at a special town meeting on Sat., April 7 and the validation of each signture on the petition.

According to Town Clerk Agnes Pier, signatures can be found to be invalid for a number of reasons, including illegible writing and the signee failing to be a registered elector.

She will likely spend the entire weekend varifying each signature, she said.

Should the number of varified signatures still surpass the required 965, the April 7 meeting will be held at Sage Park Middle School at 10 a.m.

According to Pier, those seeking to overturn the Council's tax-abatement decision must have a minimum of 100 people in the majority when residents vote at the meeting.

If they are successful, it would be a first in the town, at least since Pier took over as Town Clerk in 2002.

"To my knowledge it has never happened," she says, adding their have been petitions and meetings in the past, but she cannot recall a group that was ultimately successful.

The special meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Sat., April 7 at Sage Park Middle School.

The question voted on will be "Should the Town Council's vote on March 19, 2012 to authorize the Town Manager to execute, on behalf of the Town of Windsor, a fixed assessment agreement with Dollar Tree Distribution, Inc. be ratified?"