Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge — By unanimous vote, members of the Tri-Town Boards of Health (TriTown) approved the group’s fiscal year 2027 (FY 2027) budget on November 19, a proposal that shows about a five percent drop in the overall budget, year over year. The budget will then go to the Finance Committee for each of the three health boards represented by the group—Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge—for approval as well.
That budget can be found here.
According to Executive Director James Wilusz, the decrease is due to a correction in employee retirement benefits, with the fiscal year 2026 (FY 2026) budget including more funding than what was needed for the provision. TriTown’s FY 2026 budget for fringe benefits was $192,708, with that line item reduced to an FY 2027 request of $146,858.
Additionally, the final health insurance costs are not typically calculated at this time and may be subject to change, including an increase, when those final figures are received in early 2026, he said. “We usually increase around two percent, but that depends on a lot of factors,” Wilusz told The Berkshire Edge. Those factors include cost-of-living increases, longevity stipends, and step increases for staff. “Insurance costs have been a huge issue [the] last couple of years,” he said.
The effect of a 20 percent increase in permit fees will add a revenue benefit to the organization for the upcoming fiscal year. Permit revenues ticked up for Lenox this past year but were slightly down for the other towns. Other factors influencing the agency’s budget include larger projects coming online such as the hotel and residential redevelopment of Stockbridge’s 314-acre DeSisto parcel at 35–37 Interlaken Road as well as Lee’s Eagle Mill mixed-use and affordable-housing venture.
“We’re seeing more and more requests for inspections, housing complaints,” Wilusz said. “We had been struggling the last couple of years having our two full-time inspectors full time.” Those issues, he said, warrant a “deep dive” in the coming year into the allocations and fees apportioned among the three towns affiliated with the program. TriTown splits its expenses according to a three-year rolling average of service delivery, with Lee at 33 percent, Lenox at 43 percent, and Stockbridge at 24 percent.
For FY 2027, the organization’s budget requests per town are: Lee at $201,255.11; Lenox at $263,995.91; and Stockbridge at $144,989.55 after in-kind contributions are tallied.
Wilusz focused on the highlights of the past fiscal year including the effectiveness of TriTown’s public health nursing division that showed “significant growth in [its] vaccine program.” The program offered monthly blood pressure and 21 vaccine clinics throughout the region and provided 1,467 flu and 1,237 COVID inoculations.
The last 12 months saw a new Southern Berkshire Public Health Collaborative (SBPHC) website, and the group held a measles overview public session in response to the measles outbreak that began in Texas. It also created a guide to help local families locate food, housing, mental health, and transportation resources. The grant-funded SBPHC 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.
A grant-funded tick education program was successful in distributing information and tick pullers to the community, and its Sharps Kiosk program can now be found in most Berkshire towns.
With the teardown of Lee’s Aeroldi Building that also served as TriTown’s home for decades, the agency relocated to Stockbridge Town Hall at 50 Main Street at the end of 2024, closing its offices to the public from January 2 to 10.
Looking ahead, Wilusz said a proposal is in the works for TriTown to oversee a full-time multi-town shared animal control program, a trend he noted being implemented in non-public health sharing systems such as Stockbridge and West Stockbridge’s move towards a shared emergency medical services and fire response system.
For Wilusz, who heads up the oldest shared-services health department, TriTown “wrote the map on shared services.”
