Great Barrington — The town has announced tentative dates for planning sessions devoted to the Fiscal 2023-2024 budget. The sessions are scheduled to be held on Zoom.
The first three meetings, which will be held on Tuesday, February 28; Wednesday, March 1; and Tuesday, March 7, are all scheduled for the review of the proposed budgets of town departments. A meeting that will be a review and discussion of the proposed budget is scheduled for Wednesday, March 8. The final public hearing for the proposed fiscal 2023-2024 budget is scheduled for Wednesday, March 22. Each meeting is scheduled to be held at 6 p.m.
In an email interview with The Berkshire Edge, Town Manager Mark Pruhenski wrote that he believes that the town is doing well financially. “The local receipts and revenues are strong, and we’re well-positioned at this time to make some significant investments in our stabilization (rainy day) accounts in Fiscal Year 2023-2024,” Pruhenski wrote. “We’ll cover this in more detail when we present the proposed budget.”
When it comes to progress and growth in the town during the last year, Pruhenski wrote, “We were able to check quite a few boxes on our priority project list in 2022 … [The town made progress on] affordable housing, roads and bridges, short-term rental compliance, The Housatonic School and Community Center. [We also budgeted] for and designed other priority topics like pedestrian safety measures for Main Street and improvements to the Ramsdell Library entrance.”
Pruhenski wrote that he is proud that the town secured a developer for the Housatonic School “after 17 years and three Requests For Proposals” and that he is also proud of the re-opening of the Division Street bridge. “[We recruited and retained] a solid team of department heads to accomplish our very aggressive list of community goals,” Pruhenski wrote. “Our local economy appears strong. Great Barrington is an attractive place to live and work. Our economic development focus in 2022 was on supporting various housing projects, with ARPA [federal American Rescue Plan Act] through the CPC/CPA, and the Affordable Housing Trust, to create or retain reasonably priced housing stock for our essential workers.”
Despite all of the progress, when asked what the most memorable struggle was for the town in 2022, Pruhenski wrote, “Housatonic Water Works. There’s no question this is a high priority and remains the most challenging topic on our to-do list.” He explained, “It took decades to get here, and I fear it may take many years to finally deliver village residents the same or similar quality drinking water and fire protection benefits enjoyed by Fire District customers. Regardless of ownership, improvements will be costly and disruptive. The optimistic side of me hopes we’ll make a significant step forward in 2023, whatever that step may be.”
A few days after Town Manager Pruhenski wrote to The Berkshire Edge, a citizen’s petition was submitted to the town, which is scheduled to be on the town meeting warrant, asking for a vote on whether or not the town should purchase Housatonic Water Works.
Last year’s fiscal budget for the town was $13.6 million, a 6 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.
