WILLIAMSBURG — Voters at the annual Town Meeting on Monday approved a $6.77 million operating budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The $6,773,363 spending plan is a 2.19 percent increase over this year’s budget of $6,628,239.
A total of 120 voters, which is about 6 percent of the town’s 1,944 registered voters, attended the 90-minute meeting.
Education is the highest expenditure in the budget with a total cost of $3,614,761. Of that, $2,035,133 is for the local school, $1,347,573 for the Hampshire Regional School District, $191,688 for Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton and $38,767 for vocational school transportation.
Voters adopted the recommendation of the Finance Committee to use $130,000 from free cash for paying down school debt payments toward a 20-year bond for repairs to the Anne T. Dunphy School that began in 2012.
“This school bond was structured in such a way that payments are higher in the first eight years, then taper off in the following 12 years,” said Paul Wetzel, co-chairman of the Finance Committee. “The $130,000 of free cash will be used to pay down the ‘bubble’ of high payments that we are in and help alleviate the tax burden.”
The town is currently in its fourth year of paying off the bond. Wetzel said that the Finance Committee would recommend using free cash or money from the town’s stabilization fund to pay down the debt each year for the next four years, until the payments become lower.
“Luckily we have a strong free cash and stabilization balance,” Wetzel said.
The town’s free cash currently totals $594,491 and the stabilization fund is $1,158,576.
Voters also approved spending $40,000 for the restoration of walls and a stairway at the original Meekins Library entry.
Patricia Billingsley, chairwoman of the Board of Library Trustees, said that two architects have independently confirmed that the stairs are in serious disrepair and need to be replaced.
Billingsley said the library already has applied for an Emergency Restoration Fund grant from the Massachusetts Historical Committee, which, if received, would cover one half of the project.
The $40,000 would then pay for an architectural firm to prepare bids and specifications needed to repair the stairs and wall and to select a contractor to oversee the work.
If all goes well, the project will begin this summer and be complete by next spring, Billingsley said.
Voters also approved $4,000 for the Historic Dam Flood and Forest Trail. Using a new pedestrian trail from Ashfield Road to the dam ruins, the trail will tell the story of the 1874 Mill River Flood, and illustrate the 250-year history of family farms and forest management in the Hilltowns.
The trail will between three-quarters of a mile and one mile long and include foot bridges and interpretative signs.