Great Barrington — This year’s Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2 p.m., at Monument Mountain Regional High School.
The Annual Town Meeting is typically held on a weekday evening; however, following taking public input through an online survey, the Selectboard decided in December to schedule the meeting in the afternoon on a weekend in order to increase resident participation.
Articles of interest at this year’s Town Meeting include:
Article 4: Fiscal 2026 town operating budget
This year’s general fund budget is $16.7 million, a $314,336 increase from this fiscal year.
Funding for the town’s Police Department is proposed at $2.19 million, a reduction of $54,279 from this year’s budget.
The Fire Department’s funding is proposed at $909,669, an increase of $12,192 from this year’s budget.
The Highway Department’s budget is proposed at $1.83 million, a decrease of $159,695 from this year’s budget.
Insurance for town staff has increased substantially, with a proposed budget of $1.91 million, an increase of $108,529 from this fiscal year.
Article 5: Capital spending authorizations
This year, the town is asking for $13.1 million in capital authorizations for various infrastructure projects and purchases. This includes $10.3 million for street, bridges, and culvert improvements, $750,000 for street and bridge project engineering, $225,000 for various library capital projects, and $100,000 for various emergency repairs and improvements to town-owned buildings.
Proposed purchases for the Department of Public Works include: $400,000 for a Freightliner dump truck, $250,000 for an excavator, $130,000 for a cemetery dump truck, $66,000 for a pickup truck, $66,000 for a utility van, $35,000 for a large field mower, and $6,400 for construction mats.
Proposed purchases for the town’s Police Department include: two police cruisers for a total of $127,100, a police drone for $14,500, and an electronic bike for $6,000.
Proposed purchases for the town’s Fire Department include: $115,000 for 25 handheld and nine on-board apparatus fire radios.
Article 8: Fiscal 2026 Berkshire Hills Regional School District Assessment
This year’s assessment for the school district is proposed at $22.2 million, an increase of $1.17 million from this fiscal year’s assessment of $21.0 million. (Click here to read more about the proposed school budget.)
Article 9: Out-of-district vocational tuition and transportation
This year’s request for the tuition and transportation for students for out-of-district vocational education is $135,000, a $55,000 from this fiscal year.
Article 10: Funds for Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad Inc.
This year’s funding request is $304,909, a proposed $99,583 increase from this fiscal year.
Article 13: Funding for a temporary Brookside Road Bridge
The town is asking for $3 million for the payment of costs for the construction and installation of a temporary bridge on Brookside Road. The bridge was unexpectedly closed in May 2024 by MassDOT.
Article 18: Funding for various community preservation projects
The warrant article asks residents to approve various appropriations for projects which total $905,800. These include:
- $375,000 for the town’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund;
- $150,000 for an affordable housing project for Marble Block Realty;
- $54,000 for the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire;
- $146,000 for the Mason Library’s clamshell canopy;
- $49,000 for exterior sconces at the Mason Library;
- $24,800 for a trail maintained by the Berkshire Natural Resource Council; and
- $107,000 for park equipment throughout the town.
Article 23: Amending the zoning bylaw by adding residential cluster developments
Article 24: Adding a campus overlay district to the zoning bylaws
The Planning Board took up the proposed multiple zoning amendments earlier this year. See previous reporting here.
Unlike previous years, there are no citizen’s petitions on this year’s Town Meeting Warrant. See the full Town Meeting Warrant here.
