Highlights from last night’s Town Meeting include:

• Approved a bylaw that will increase to $300 the fine for anyone caught smoking marijuana in public.
• Voters increased the school budget and, in a nonbinding vote, sent a message to selectmen to not to increase retirees’ insurance premiums. Town meeting debated the School Department budget for almost 90 minutes before increasing it by nearly $400,000, despite opposition from the Finance Committee.
• Approved expedited permitting for Middleboro Park @ 495.
• Established a Land Acquisition Fund.
• Vetoed transferring Water Department land on Fuller Street to general government.
• Agreed to swap property behind the South Middleboro Fire Station for land next to it.
• Passed a $70.2 million town budget.

(EnterpriseNews.com, May 27, 2009)