WESTHAMPTON — Voters approved the town’s budget for next year with a couple of changes at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting before the unfinished session was continued to June 22, following the town election earlier that month.
Residents passed 10 articles on Saturday: three on a special Town Meeting warrant and seven on the annual Town Meeting warrant. Four articles remain for the annual meeting’s continuation on June 22, including Article 8 to appropriate funds for a police cruiser and several other matters to finalize the budget.
Prior to that, residents will vote on a $125,000 Proposition 2½ override on June 6.
Overall, voters passed the $6 million budget for fiscal year 2027 through Article 6, along with the town’s $1.6 million contribution to the Hampshire Regional School District through Article 7, for a total budget of approximately $7.6 million.
Articles that saw less discussion included the three on the special warrant and Articles 1, 4 and 5 of the annual Town Meeting warrant. Article 2 passed, establishing a capital repairs fund, and Article 3 passed, allowing the town to lease a portion of the town-owned landfill to a solar developer.
The approved $6 million budget requires the $125,000 override to pass at the town election. If the override fails, the Highway Department would be reduced from four to three road workers, and Westhampton Elementary School would lose a music teacher, a custodian and funding for supplies and maintenance.
Cemetery Commission Chair John Shaw motioned to appropriate $10,500 from free cash to save the Highway Department’s part-time clerk position, filled by Kayla Diggins, who is also the part-time town clerk and clerk for the Cemetery Commission. Diggins is resigning the town clerk position immediately.
“She does a great job with this position,” Shaw said about Diggins. “We need to fund this position.”
After a $500,000 override failed in April, the clerical position was one of many proposed cuts made to balance $250,000 of the deficit. Other proposed cuts include eliminating an elementary school librarian, reducing police department hours and cutting highway machinery. The School Committee contributed funding from revolving accounts, and the town discovered $64,000 through an accounting error, to help soften the deficit. To balance the other $250,000, the town is proposing the $125,000 override and using $125,000 in free cash.
Finance Committee Chair Tad Weiss said cutting expenses and finding new revenues is a difficult one, but the town did the best they could. “It was really a painful exercise looking at our town department heads and asking them to cut. We did the best we could and it’s an imperfect process.”
Hampshire Regional School District Chair Thomas Cleary Jr. proposed increasing the override to $185,500, but voters rejected the amendment. After Cleary’s proposal, a five-minute recess was taken for officials to clarify if the amendment was feasible, which included three Select Board members meeting in a separate room.
“There are multiple reasons why I made this amendment. One is that it is our responsibility as town members to decide what we want for services,” Cleary said. “I invite other people to hear what they think about this.”
A separate amendment was passed for Article 7, removing language that would have made Westhampton’s contribution to the high school contingent on the override passing. This was proposed after the Select Board attempted to table the article, a move contested by residents and school staff.
“I was never told until this morning that this article might be tabled,” said Hampshire Regional High School Principal Lauren Hotz. “I have a lot of concerns if we are not able to vote on this article today and I really would have liked to know that ahead of time.”
After the high school’s budget was approved with the amendment, town officials continued the annual Town Meeting until after a special Town Election. Select Board member Jennifer Milikowsky explained why the meeting must continue after the June 6 vote.
“We are going to have to continue Town Meeting because we just passed a budget contingent on an override,” Milikowsky explained. “We’ll know how much revenue we have at that point. If we don’t know how much revenue, how do we make decisions as to what to fund and what not to fund?”
While some residents expressed worry over rising property taxes, others, like Julie Holt, supported the move.
“On all overrides in this town, I vote ‘yes’ because I know it [Westhampton] needs it. [Proposition] 2½ has had its time. It is not sufficient for towns to fund what they need to fund. I love paying my Westhampton taxes. I love this community,” Holt said, receiving an applause from the crowd.
For more information visit westhamptonma.gov.
