GRANBY— Town Meeting attendees will consider a $27.5 million operating budget, a new stormwater bylaw and the future of West Street Building during the second half of the annual Town Meeting on Monday.

The West Street Building discussion will come up first at a special Town Meeting scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at East Street School, followed by the annual Town Meeting. The special meeting will seek guidance from residents about the town’s current dilemma with town offices, while the regular meeting will address next fiscal year’s operating budget, tax relief and the Environmental Protection Agency’s mandate to adopt a stormwater bylaw.

West Street Building

For over a year, the West Street Building Committee has investigated the most cost-effective ways to turn West Street Building into town offices and a new Council on Aging. After initially saying the project would need $5.6 million and not require a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion, unforeseen expenses, mostly due to bringing the old building up to code, jumped the project’s cost to more than $14 million, needing a debt exclusion. Both the project and the debt exclusion failed at an April special Town Meeting and at the ballot box, respectively.

Now, after allocating $3 million to demolish West Street Building in April, residents will decide whether to put those funds back into the $5.6 million pot for bare-minimum renovations to house town offices in the old elementary school.

“I have probably spent 40 or 50 hours on the West Street Building,” Select Board Chair Mark Bail said. “I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t the best option, but it’s the only option we have without an override.”

The proposed plan, a smaller version of one the West Street Building Committee’s project options, would renovate roughly 10,000 square feet of space to house all the town offices in one wing of the structure, Bail said. This plan, which uses the previously earmarked $5.6 million for the project, will not include a Council on Aging, but could be expanded to include the senior center and other meeting spaces at a later date.

“Something that came up several times in our Select Board meetings is were planning for the future,” Select Board Member Glenn Sexton said. “We’re not planning for a year or two years down the road, we’re planning for 10, 15, 20 years down the road so we have something in place.”

Bail added that the West Street Building Committee and project architect estimate new construction costs around $650 a square foot, and demolition of the building would require between $2.5 million and $2.9 million of the project’s $5.6 million budget. In addition, bathrooms, closets and “width of inside walls” take up addition room, further limiting space for town offices.

“Once you add demolition, you’re actually adding more,” Bail said. “Everything costs more than what we actually have.”

To buy time to finish the West Street Building renovations, residents also will vote on whether to spend $37,500 to pave the Annex driveway, which would replace rent payments for the next 18 months. Otherwise, the Annex rent will double, from $2,200 to $4,400 a month.

Fiscal year 2026 budget

In addition to the capital items discussed at the special Town Meeting, the annual Town Meeting will discuss the town’s operating budget for fiscal year 2026. The proposed $27.5 million budget is a 5.3% increase over the previous year, according to the Finance Committee’s report. The Committee points to a $583,000 increase in health insurance, a $573,000 increase in out-of-district school placements and a $307,000 increase in school transportation as the biggest drivers of the larger budget.

“Here is what is particularly significant about this amount,” the report reads. “This is now a built-in increase in Granby’s annual operating expenses.”

The rise in operating expenses may also deplete the town’s free cash and leave less money to put into stabilization funds. At the annual Town Meeting, two topics of debate include spending $1.9 million in free cash, $200,400 from the Capital Needs Stabilization Fund and $10,932 in bond premiums to reduce funding from the tax levy.

“With the almost $1.5 million built-in budget increases added to the decreases in stabilization funds, it will be close to impossible to continue to expect the services from Granby that we the citizens enjoy now,” the report reads.

Granby’s School Department budget makes up $12.45 million of the town’s fiscal year 2026 budget. Superintendent Mary Jane Rickson said during an April 1 School Committee meeting that the reduced service budget would eliminate 8.5 positions next school year, bringing the district’s total staff losses to 18.5 positions in three years.

Stormwater bylaw

Outside of monetary items, residents will vote on a stormwater bylaw that seeks to limit runoff pollution into public waterways. The bylaw requires a stormwater permit for construction that impacts at least 40,000 square feet, or about an acre, of land. Redevelopment or development under 40,000 square feet must limit impervious surfaces, do not require the drainage reports, plans, construction drawings, specifications and operation and maintenance plans that larger projects must produce.

In compliance with an administrative order from the Environmental Protection Agency, Granby must adopt a stormwater bylaw before June 30, 2025.

“We have a set of regulations that was developed in conjunction with Pioneer Valley Planning Commission,” interim Town Administrator Chris Martin said during a Jan. 22 Select Board Meeting. “It was never brought forward to Town Meeting for adoption.”

At a public hearing on June 2, Patty Gambarini, chief environmental planner from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, explained the purpose of the bylaw is to establish the authority over stormwater and key points for regulations. In Granby, the Select Board delegates its authority to the Department of Public Works. The bylaw adopts many of the state and federal regulations, which are similar to the town’s current regulations that never made it to Town Meeting.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com