Voters in the Southern Berkshire County community of around 5,800 briskly and cheerfully dispensed with all 17 items on the agenda in about an hour at the middle and high school.
“I'm very pleased with the results of the town meeting," Town Administrator Chris Brittain told WAMC. "We really appreciate the support of the public. We tried to put together a really responsible budget this year. Based on how quick we got through it, and everything passed unanimously- We feel really good about that, and we're happy to have the support of the community here in Lee.”
One of the items voters approved was an almost $550,000 use of stabilization fund interest toward the first bond payment on the almost $37 million new public safety complex the town began construction on in April.
By using that funding source, the expenditure won’t impact the tax rate — for now.
“So, next year, we are going to see the first full bond payment of public safety," Brittain explained. "So, that's going to hit the budget next year. We have some other things that will be coming down either next year or the year after when we start to look at what we're going to do with the old fire station, that sort of thing.”
It wasn’t the first time Lee residents have gathered to deal with town business this year.
“I'm very glad that we had a special town meeting a month and a half, two months ago- Otherwise, it would have been twice as long, of course. I expected a little more pushback, because there were budget increases, but perfectly justifiable and explainable," said select board member Bob Jones. “So, I think people understood it. People in Lee tend to get the facts before they come to the meetings. They were informed when they get here, and I think that's why our meetings tend to go pretty smoothly.”
The $24.3 million municipal operating budget for fiscal year 2026 contains an $11.8 million school department spending plan. Echoing other Berkshire County communities, Lee leaders attribute the almost 7% increase over the current year to contractual obligations and the rising cost of insurance.
“This year we were hit by some- We were sort of blindsided," Jones told WAMC. "We didn't know the insurance costs were going to go where they were. We knew we're going to have to renegotiate contracts and all that- We won't have to go through that hopefully again next year. So, I don't expect any major increases in the very near future.”
Town voters also signed off on amendments to the town’s zoning bylaws around Accessary Dwelling Units or ADUs.
“Tonight, we made changes to bring our already existing by law into a compliance with what the state has put forth," explained Lee planning board chair Buck Donovan. “We had a bylaw we did two years ago, the state had one in the works. We never thought it would really happen, it did happen- So, we had to make ours conform to theirs. First, it was by special permit- The state has made it by right, which means, if it conforms to your setbacks and all that, you can do it without any special permit, which is, it's going to be good, a nice way to build some housing up. Also, they changed the size regulations, and we had to conform to that.”
Jones says liberalizing ADU bylaws is the least the government can do to alleviate the crunch of the statewide housing crisis that Berkshire County knows all too well.
“The problem is that it's hard for people to find a place that they can afford to live anymore, and part of that is due to second homes- Not so much in Lee, but in surrounding towns," he told WAMC. "The other problem is simply a disparity of wealth. And I’m really concerned about young people who are just getting out of school. I know young people who are in their 30s who can't afford an apartment, they're still living in their parents' house because they got a car payment. That wasn't that way for me and it wasn't that way for my parents, and I just think that we should look to our state and federal governments to fix that. We're trying to do it with ADUs and apartments in existing housing, but that's not really the root cause of the problem.”
Outside the meeting, members of Lee’s Greener Gateway Committee stumped for volunteers ahead of September’s annual Founders Weekend celebration.
“We do a lot of things in town for reducing waste, for dealing with invasives. We're supporting the schools in separating food waste and having it composted, we help with downtown gardens, we promote greener holidays. We just had, last Saturday, our annual Earth Day work day and did a lot of work downtown, we had a roadside cleanup, and we removed a whole bunch of invasives from Golden Hill Town Forest," Chair Peter Hofman said. “Founders Weekend is long tradition in Lee. It's in honor of the founders of the town of Lee, and more than 10 years ago, our committee started trying to have people separate their waste into trash, compost and recycling, and we've expanded that effort tremendously. Last year, we diverted 90% of the waste, either recycling or composting, was over 500 pounds of compostable materials that we were able to pull out of that”
Hofman is keen to instill the committee’s values and objectives in a new generation of Lee residents.
“What’s really sad about this is Massachusetts can't handle all the trash that it has," He told WAMC. "We send trash as far away as Alabama and Michigan, and that just doesn't make any sense. So, we're just trying to help cut down on the trash. And compost is good- Turns it into usable soil. Recycling works. So that's what this is really about. We're just trying to get more volunteers to help us, because most of our members have as white hair as I do, and it's a lot of work.”
Founders Weekend kicks off September 19th.
