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HOPKINTON INDEPENDENT Vol. 24 | No. 24 | November 22, 2023
Town Meeting votes in favor of new school By Mary Ellen Gambon Staff Writer
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PHOTO/JOHN CARDILLO
he highlight of the Nov. 13 Special Town Meeting was the passage of Article 1 to approve a proposal for a new building to replace Elmwood Elementary School. Town Meeting experienced some initial delays as people filed into Hopkinton Middle School during a light snowfall at the meeting’s start. This was the first time an electronic voting system was used for Town Meeting. Town Clerk Connor Degan, who filled in as the moderator, demonstrated the system once the crowd settled in. The Elementary School Building Committee has considered for the past two years whether to replace the current Elmwood School, which was built in the 1960s, or renovate it. It was deemed more cost-effective to replace the school with a modern building on Hayden Rowe Street to meet the needs of the expanding student population. As discussions
SEMI-TOUGH
Members of the Hopkinton High School boys soccer team celebrate a goal in a state tournament game earlier this month. The boys and girls soccer teams both reached the state semifinals before bowing out. Story, Page 17.
Town Meeting | 11
INSIDE
Yes to visa, but no to voting
NEWS
Morand takes job with town, resigns School Committee
By Mary Ellen Gambon Staff Writer
POLICE
Porter attorney gets access to Brennan’s phone info
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Voting | 10
The crowd that assembled in the Hopkinton Middle School auditorium at the start of Special Town Meeting did not include a number of residents who are here on H-1B visas and can’t vote.
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haval Avlani has lived in Legacy Farms for the past 13 years with his wife and son. He came to Hopkinton on an H-1B visa as a worker with technical skills desirable to American companies. What has frustrated him and other Legacy Farms residents who also work under the H-1B visa program, he said, is that the monolithic process toward U.S. citizenship prevents them from having the right to vote on town issues that impact them as taxpayers. “I feel like it’s taxation without representation,” he said in a recent interview with the Independent.
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