Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge — Meeting remotely on December 19, the regional health board for Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge—the Tri-Town Board of Health—unanimously approved its fiscal year 2026 budget, at a 7.6 percent increase year over year.
The new budget reflects an uptick in “compensation reserve,” a line item that includes cost-of-living increases and longevity stipends for which all four of Tri-Town’s employees are now qualified. Last year, the board adjusted staff salaries to be more in line with the market and dropped the cost-of-living tabulation that has been reincorporated in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, said Executive Director James Wilusz.
A copy of the budget presentation made by Wilusz to the board can be found here.
Tri-Town maintains an in-house lab, and the fiscal year 2026 budget cites anticipated cost increases for the lab, internet, and supplies, Wilusz said.
During fiscal 2025, about 75 percent of the organization’s documented records were scanned and digitized using grant funds. The cost to complete the project, or the remaining 25 percent, is included in the fiscal 2026 budget should an additional grant covering those charges not be obtained. At a tally of $15,023, those future charges will be split between the three member towns proportionally, with Lenox bearing 43 percent of the costs ($6,460), Lee bearing 33 percent ($4,958), and Stockbridge at 24 percent ($3,605).
Due to its upcoming relocation from Lee to a roomier space in Stockbridge, Tri-Town’s rent will increase slightly, as will bookkeeping costs that have not pushed upwards in many years.
According to Wilusz, however, revenues are projected to improve in the coming year by $35,000 to $40,000 as a result of Tri-Town’s permit fee hike set to begin next month. “With our 20 percent increase in the fees, we will see a significant jump [in revenues] this time next year,” Wilusz said. “We were flat for a while from the pandemic, and I think we’re starting to finally bounce back.”
Totaling $624,935.10, the fiscal 2026 budget reflects a 7.6 percent increase over fiscal 2025. Proportionally, at a 33 percent share, Lee’s budget is assessed at $206,228.58, with Lenox assessed at $268,722.09 for its 43 percent share, and Stockbridge assessed at $149,984.42 for its 24 percent share. However, Lee is credited with $1,346.40 for in-kind bookkeeping contributions as Stockbridge at $2,357.78 for the town’s portion of Tri-Town’s office rent once the relocation is complete.
The budget is listed as “draft” since it may be adjusted in the future when the cost of health insurance for town employees is determined in February, Wilusz said.
“It’s our job as overseers to approve or reject the budget proposed by the executive director,” said Chair Dr. Charles Kenny.
Wilusz highlighted the organization’s past year of accomplishments, including the success of the Public Health Nursing Program that is now in its third year as a vaccine provider. Over the past 12 months, the program offered 19 vaccine clinics, including 588 high flu doses, 830 regular flu doses, and 1,200 COVID doses. It also doubled the number of vaccines given to homebound individuals over the previous year and earned a pediatric certification within its vaccine program.
Falling under Tri-Town’s umbrella, the grant-funded Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative was developed in 2021 to share services—nursing, inspection, community partnerships—between the Tri-Town Health District and the towns of Alford, Great Barrington, Monterey, Mount Washington, New Marlborough, Otis, Sandisfield, Sheffield, and Tyringham. During the past year, this program assisted in the Butternut Wildfire response, enacting air-quality advisories and distributing masks in South County.
The organization’s focus in the coming fiscal year will include its continued response to COVID-19, with the number of those vaccines administered climbing year over year, Wilusz said. Tri-Town vaccines are given at no cost if insurance doesn’t cover the inoculations, he noted. “We will not turn anybody away,” Wilusz said. “This is public health, not a private business.”
Staff accreditation will be at the forefront of Tri-Town’s objectives along with an expansion of its nursing program and implementation of a regional prescription drug take-back project.
Bird flu update
Although the board previously discussed the status of H5N1, commonly referred to as the “bird flu” or “avian flu,” the topic was revisited following California officials declaring a state of emergency stemming from the disease that has spread through dairy cows in that region, sickening humans. According to a December 20 Associated Press article, the illness was detected in Texas and Kansas dairy cattle in March and has since “been confirmed in at least 866 herds in 16 states.”
The group chose not to react earlier in the year because they deemed the virus as not posing “a significant actionable risk,” Kenny said. However, at the time, the board posted information about the virus on its website to assist individuals who take care of poultry.
Citing the measures taken by California and the existence of 40 to 50 human cases of the virus, Kenny said there hasn’t been a human-to-human spread of the illness that has affected primarily poultry and dairy workers who are in close contact with diseased animals. He said he wasn’t aware of any human deaths related to the bird flu.
“It does seem to be a problem that isn’t necessarily going away,” Kenny said, opening up the conversation to members.
Stockbridge Board of Health representative Elias Lefferman questioned whether dairy farmers in the area have been notified by the state or another agency of precautions to be taken in light of H5N1, including High Lawn Farms. “Have they been made aware of this issue by the state or anybody so they could be aware of it and watch for it?” he asked.
In September, state officials announced that herds in all 95 of the Commonwealth’s licensed dairy farms were tested in August for the avian flu, with those results negative for the virus.
Board member Dr. Noel Blagg, Lenox Board of Health’s representative, responded that an individual in Louisiana who had her own flock and handled dead birds became sick, marking the first poultry-to-human contact resulting in severe disease. He said there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the dairy strain of the illness.
“One of the reasons I ask is because of High Lawn Farm, for instance,” Lefferman said. “They do allow the public to go into the area where the babies are born, where there’s cattle, where they pet the cattle. It seems very minimal, but most farms don’t have the public coming onto the grounds. High Lawn Farm, in particular, has that with children and adults going through their barns to interact with the cattle, the newborns. So, I just wanted to be overly, overly cautious about that possibility.”
Blagg said he wasn’t sure of the High Lawn’s protocol and stated concern over the transmission of the dairy strain of the virus from cattle to cattle; that is, from an infected herd to a herd not infected. “Overall, I think the risk level of people right at the present time is low, not very low,” he said. “But there are recommendations that flocks shouldn’t be allowed to free range. They should be in an enclosed area, preferably with some kind of netting or something that would prevent other birds from coming to visit with them.”
Blagg advocated to “find out what actually is going on in terms of the agriculture folks and how they are interacting with dairy farmers and keepers of large flocks, what kind of recommendations that they have in place and whether they have any enforcement because that is the source.”
“So, I would like to know what is actually happening in Massachusetts on the ground,” he said. “I don’t feel I’m in a position to march over to High Lawn Farm and ask them directly what they are doing. My hunch is, given the immense investment that they have in their retail sales, that they are probably pretty squeaky clean, but I don’t know.”
Lee Board of Health representative Dr. Robert Wespiser weighed in. “I would suggest something along the lines that we take this seriously, that we remain surveillant from data reported through our national and statewide entities and that we keep it on the Tri-Town agenda [for the quarterly meetings],” he said. “Further activity restricting visiting at High Lawn Farm—I don’t think there’s enough [of] either risk or information other than reporting dead birds or sick cows which is already in place from the Department of Public Health.”
The Berkshire Edge reached out to High Lawn Farm for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
