SEEKONK — Voters at Monday’s town election will decide on two initiatives: one to remove the town’s residency requirement, the other to allow a surcharge on local property taxes to benefit community preservation.

Voters at last fall’s Town Meeting overwhelmingly supported removing the Town Charter’s in-town residency requirement for the positions of town administrator, schools superintendent, police chief and fire chief. The change, however, needs additional approval by a majority of voters at the April 7 election.

Voters last spring rejected an identical measure.

The Board of Selectmen and others have argued that the residency requirement is out-of-date and bars potentially qualified individuals from working for the town.

The selectmen this year included language in new Town Administrator Michael J. Carroll’s three-year contract that provides for waiving of the residency rule for “extenuating circumstances.” The board has also agreed to exempt Carroll from the rule for the length of his contract to provide him with job security.

Carroll, who lives in Wrentham, Mass., started Jan. 2 in Seekonk. Schools Supt. Emile Chevrette also lives outside the community, in Glocester, R.I.

About one-third of all Massachusetts communities levy a tax surcharge to support open space, historic preservation and affordable housing under the provisions of the state’s Community Preservation Act (CPA).

Local conservation supporters gathered enough signatures to place a referendum on next week’s ballot to start a CPA fund in town.

The CPA, enacted in 2000, allows Bay State communities to tack on up to a 3-percent surcharge — local organizers are contemplating a 1.25-percent surcharge — on property tax bills to create a local community preservation fund that would be bolstered by matching state dollars.

Once the fund is established, 30 percent of the account must be divided equally among acquisition or preservation of open space, creation or support of affordable-housing developments and preserving historic properties. The remaining 70 percent can be directed toward any of the three categories or for recreation properties.

Communities can exempt elderly and low-income residents from the surcharge, and can calculate the surcharge after excluding the first $100,000 of assessed property value. Commercial and industrial properties can also be exempted from the CPA surcharge.

If voters decide that Seekonk should join the CPA, the town must establish a committee to administer the fund and must maintain it for at least five years.

mwims@projo.com