All 19 articles on the warrant were passed almost unanimously, including a $11.2 million municipal operating budget for the coming fiscal year, up just under $2 million from the current year.
“This year presents one of the most challenging budget environments in recent history as a result of the inflammatory economic environment which has increased costs significantly providing municipal services," said select board member Dave Roche at the town’s middle and high school. “The most impactful items in this year's budget are non-discretionary costs, such as a 16% insurance increase [and] expected debt service payments to fund the public safety complex construction and the wastewater treatment plan upgrade. These long-anticipated projects are essential to keeping our infrastructure in the state of good repair.”
The $17.8 million school budget is up about a million dollars from 2025.
“We break it into three categories of increase," said school committee chair Oren Cass. "The first is just that level service increase going up for the same reasons you've heard everywhere else in the town- Contractual provisions, utilities, maintenance and so forth. That's up less than 3%, so, keeping that growth very low.”
Cass is also chief economist and founder of conservative think tank American Compass.
“And then we have two areas where we're investing," he continued. "One is in improving some current services. We are doing some additional PD work with the teachers, we are upgrading some software, and just dipping a toe into AI, which is especially important in the education space. And we're expanding our coverage of funding for field trips to make sure that every student can go on the especially important trips, like- We do a Nature's Classroom program in the middle school. I should say we have funding to ensure all students can always go on the trips if they need assistance, but we want to build some of these core ones just into the budget to make it just for granted that this is something that everyone is doing.”
The Lenox public schools are also adding two new positions.
“The two this year are a part-time grant writer and an English and language arts interventionist to help those students who are still behind the curve at the middle school,” explained Cass.
Residents also approved a $1.2 million plan to design and construct a new water main in a neighborhood to the north of Lenox just on the border of Pittsfield.
“We've begun work on Holmeswood Terrace," said select board chair Neal Maxymillian. "This is for Superintendent [William] Gop to continue that work to replace old water lines with new ductile water lines. It gives us some redundancy, it avoids service interruptions if there's something to fix. I think the cost estimate of $1.2 million is probably quite conservative. I would imagine that we'd probably be in the $800,000 to $900,000 range, but that'll go out to bid competitively. I've heard from [Gop] that there's already interest expressed, so we will borrow only the amount once we have bids in hand to pay for it.”
Voters signed off on $1.9 million to buy Lenox a brand-new ladder truck for the fire department. The bulk of the funding will come from the Fire Engine Stabilization Account with the remaining $800,000 coming out of the town’s free cash reserves.
“This year, the fire ladder truck has been planning to purchase the new ladder truck to replace truck number five, a 30-year-old truck, a 1996 Spartan," said Roche. “The fire department has spent approximately $6,000 in the past year alone on repairs to keep truck five road worthy. The new truck will be a stock model specification set by the committee. If ordered this summer, anticipated delivery date will be one year out.”
Lenox also used the meeting to pass amendments to its zoning bylaws around food trucks.
“The new bylaw applies to mobile food establishments that operate on privately owned commercial property and are open to the public. It does not apply to mobile food establishments operating on private residential properties for events not open to the public. An example would be someone hosting a graduation party on their property who wants to have a food truck cater the event," explained planning board chair Tom Delasco. “The bylaw outlines some simple general requirements, such as obtaining and displaying the proper health department permits complying with dimensional requirements, limits on operating hours and the use of combustion power generators. It also outlines some basic requirements for maintaining a clean and safe environment where the mobile food establishment is operating.”
Lenox’s next major municipal event is the town election on Monday.
