CHELMSFORD — Town Meeting representatives gathered at the Chelmsford Senior Center Monday for the first night of fall Town Meeting, where they voted on open space preservation at the Koulas Farm property, banning certain rodenticides and the next phase of the McCarthy Middle School roof replacement project.

Article 34 was the final article to be considered in the three-and-a-half-hour session Monday, and it generated by far the most discussion of the night. The article was a citizen petition submitted by John Ray for the town to maintain a 1.5-acre portion of the Koulas Farm property as family-friendly recreational open fields.

The former Koulas Farm property, which Town Meeting voted to purchase in the fall 2023 session, is split up into four separate, noncontiguous parcels to the north and south of Interstate 495, covering a combined total of 41.91 acres. For Article 34, the idea was to maintain two areas totaling 1.5 acres within the parcel at 185 Pine Hill Road as open space.

The article ultimately failed with 50 in favor and 56 opposed, with nine abstentions, after a lengthy discussion.

Conservation Commission member and Town Meeting Rep. Karl Bischoff said he had met with Ray multiple times on the property in the last month, and Bischoff had the understanding that Article 34 was to be withdrawn.

“Then, in a day or so, something changes and he is asking for something more,” said Bischoff. “The commission has posted the Koulas Farm plan update on our website since July … and that is our current plan we are working toward … The town manager and the Select Board asked us to manage the site and develop the conservation restriction.”

Bischoff said the Conservation Commission is focused on completing that restriction.

“We believe our current plan for Koulas Farm strikes the right balance between providing public access and protecting our natural resources,” said Bischoff.

Koulas Farm Task Force Vice Chair and Town Meeting Rep. Philip Stanway said the area in question is “a miniscule piece” of the larger Koulas Farm property, and urged representatives to vote in favor.

“I think those residents who paid $4.1 million — I thought it was overpaid — I think they deserve some place right there. A field you can go play ball on, have a picnic on, that you have Scouts be on. Currently there is nothing out there that could do that,” said Stanway.

Friends of Koulas Farm member David Dodge presented the article, and after a question from a representative he said the main point of contention he has heard with the article was what it would mean to “maintain” that 1.5-acre piece.

“The hot button really has been about maintaining the length of the grass. If you let part of that area, the 1.5 acres, or all of it go to meadow, at the beginning of the mowing season the weeds and grass and vegetation will overtake it quickly,” said Dodge.

Ray got up to speak, and said he did not see a plan to continue cutting the grass in the conservation plan for the property.

“What we’re looking for is to maintain the 1.5 acres just the way we’ve maintained it for a year, much the way Red Wing Farm was maintained,” said Ray.

Earlier in the meeting, multiple articles related to school infrastructure projects were approved. The first was Article 10, which was a request for $400,000 for a rehabilitation project for switch gears in Chelmsford’s aging schools.

“All of our school buildings are 50 to 70 years old, and a lot of our switch systems are panelboard systems original to the building,” said Public Works Director Christine Clancy, referring to the switch gears as “the heart of electrical systems in the building.”

The focus of the project will be on South Row Elementary School and Chelmsford High School. Article 10 passed unanimously with 120 votes in favor.

Article 12 was a request for $2.5 million from free cash for the McCarthy Middle School roof replacement project. Clancy said the parts of the roof covered by this round of the project are above the cafeteria and gymnasiums for the most part. The 24-year-old roof section, Clancy said, has reached “the end of its useful life” and has a history of leaks. The hope, Clancy said, is for the project to be completed next summer.

The McCarthy Middle School roof holds solar panels, which are more than 10 years old, Clancy said. She said the plan is to remove those panels and replace them with newer models with a longer lifespan, but that is still being worked into the overall project cost. Article 12 passed 123-1.

Article 33 was a home rule petition, asking the state Legislature for permission to ban certain kinds of anticoagulant rodenticides from being used by the town. Similar articles have been adopted by other Town Meetings in Greater Lowell, like Billerica, in the past year.

Derek SooHoo, the founder of Save Chelmsford Wildlife, presented the article, which he said targets second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides, or SGARs. These rodenticides work by preventing blood clotting in rodents who consume them, which causes internal bleeding and eventually death.

The main problem, SooHoo said, is that SGARs often do not kill the rodents who consume them quickly enough. Beyond the suffering the rodent may endure before it dies, SooHoo said a major concern is that these rodents then have time to be caught and eaten by larger predators before the rodenticide kills them, and the substance then passes on to the predator, often killing them as well.

“In 2020, the Tufts Wildlife Clinic found that 100% of red-tailed hawks that were found dead had traces of SGARs in them,” said SooHoo.

Pets can be at risk as well, and SooHoo said there is evidence of SGARs having made it into waterways. He promoted alternative rodenticides, like mechanical mouse traps or having owl houses on your property to attract predators to rodents.

Article 33 passed 111-8, sending it to the Legislature.

Town Meeting will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.