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Lenox voters approve all items on town manager Ketchen’s final town meeting warrant

Lenox, Massachusetts town manager Christopher Ketchen, speaking at town meeting on May 2nd, 2024.
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Lenox, Massachusetts town manager Christopher Ketchen, speaking at town meeting on May 2nd, 2024.

Lenox, Massachusetts voters briskly approved a 14-item warrant at town meeting Thursday night, the last after a decade for the outgoing town manager.

Residents gathered in the Duffin Theater at Lenox Memorial Middle and High School for the annual New England tradition of direct democracy. It began with an update on major items from last year’s vote.

“Last year town meeting, you approved a $70 million expenditure for construction of a public safety building and a major rebuild and upgrade of the wastewater treatment facility to meet federal standards. Two days ago, we had a groundbreaking ceremony for our public safety building," said select board chair Ed Lane. “This facility is a symbol of your commitment to provide our police, fire, and ambulance the tools and proper working environments needed as they perform their duties. You should be very proud of this one. It was completed in about a year. The wastewater treatment plant upgrades are much larger, more detailed, and the technical build is still in the engineering phase but coming along as planned and on schedule.”

Lane addressed the long-dreaded beginning of General Electric’s cleanup of the Housatonic River. Announced in 2020, the controversial multi-million-dollar pollution remediation is expected to take at least 15 years.

“As we begin the actual implementation of the river cleanup, our focus will be on the health and safety of our residents. The town of Lenox is committed to provide oversight for the consultants and any other source we may need to keep an eye on things and may act as a go between the GE and EPA as the work progresses. This is ongoing, and we greatly welcome and appreciate your concerns and comments. Another aspect of the cleanup is to address how residents of Lenoxdale in affected streets and neighborhoods should be compensated for the disruption and actually come out of this maybe a better in a better place. We will have community meetings, citizen input and professional planners to make this happen.”

Town manager Christopher Ketchen, who will leave for a job with the state’s Division of Local Services in July, presented the $35.4 million budget for fiscal year 2025.

“In Lenox, the largest expenditures will take place, obviously, to fund our outstanding public school system. 47.6% of total appropriations are dedicated towards our public schools," he said. "Some of the larger other categories include public safety at 8.6%, general government at 10.7%. Our enterprise fund activity is about 10.3%,10.4% of total spending, and then the remainder is distributed among various other categories.”

He then turned to the tax rate.

“Total valuation of the town in the current fiscal year that we're in, that's FY 24, is $1.8 billion," said Ketchen. "That's 'billion,' with a ‘b.’ Property tax levy for FY25, if all the if all the appropriations articles are approved here tonight is estimated to be $19 million. That would result, according to our projections, in a 5.6% increase on the on the tax rate. So that would take our current tax rate of $9.07 up to $9.58. And we have a split tax rate in Lenox. We tax commercial, industrial, and personal property at a different rate than what we tax residential property. That would increase to approximately $13.57.”

Ketchen reported to the assembled residents that Lenox has $4.6 million in its unused cash reserves, a general fund stabilization fund of over $700,000, and a debt service stabilization fund of $1.7 million.

“Other Post-Employment Benefits- This truly is unique to Lenox," said the town manager. "We have just over $8 million in our own OPEB trust. This goes to fund the health insurance, primarily health insurance for retired teachers, firefighters, police officers, one day town managers.”

Ketchen took the opportunity to reflect on his decade managing Lenox.

“Between the board of selectmen, the finance committee, and the school committee, we underspent our levy limit by almost $24 million over the last 10 years," he said. "That is a policy decision that these boards have made that you've approved that has kept $23.7 million in your pocket as opposed to coming into the town treasury.”

He also updated residents on another personnel change in Lenox town hall.

“Charlie Brown, our long serving town accountant is leaving us at the at the end of this fiscal year to enjoy, hopefully, a long and healthy retirement, and we've recruited and now have on board Anna Osborn who is the finance director from Williamstown," said Ketchen. "She's here tonight.”

Lenox’s town meeting will be followed up by the annual town election for a slate of positions including seats on the select board and school committee on Monday.

You can find the full 2024 Lenox town meeting here and see a sample ballot for the election here.

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Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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