Overview:

Voters at Petersham's June 1 Annual Town Meeting unanimously approved two Proposition 2 1⁄2 debt exclusions to fund the purchase of a new tanker for the Fire Department and a new truck for the Highway Department. The meeting also passed a FY27 town budget of just over $5.5 million, with nearly $3.4 million dedicated to schools. The non-education portion of the budget is about $2.1 million, a nearly 8% increase over the current fiscal year, which includes a 4% raise for town employees and a 32% increase in the cost of health insurance.

PETERSHAM – A pair of Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusions to pay for new municipal vehicles saw resounding approval from voters at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting.

It took the 101 voters about two hours to dispense with a warrant consisting of 39 articles. None of the articles generated much in the way of debate or inquiries.

Once the Advisory Finance Committee had provided voters with explanations for its recommendations, the meeting unanimously passed a FY27 town budget totaling just over $5.5 million.

Nearly $3.4 million of that is dedicated to schools, along with those who attend Petersham schools via school choice. That figure reflects an increase of about 5% more than the FY26 education budget of $3.2 million.

About $2.25 million will fund the Petersham Center School, with just over $1 million going to the Mahar Regional School District, and another $101,000 funding the town’s share of the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District.

The non-education portion of the FY27 budget comes to about $2.1 million, a nearly 8% increase over the current fiscal year. Included in that are raises of 4% for town employees. In addition, the cost of health insurance for current employees will jump by more than 32%, from $72,000 to more than $95,000.

For the two Proposition 2 ½ debt exclusions, Article 36 sought to borrow $800,000 for the Fire Department to purchase a replacement for a 1990 tanker. Article 37 asked voters to borrow $74,500 for a new truck for the Highway Department.

Fire Chief Bob Legare moved that the town approve borrowing $600,000 for the new tanker, $200,000 less than the amount included in the original language of Article 36. The new vehicle, he said, would replace the tanker currently in use by the department. Legare said that the tanker he planned to purchase turned out to be too big to fit into the station’s bays, and so he went with a smaller, and less costly, vehicle.

Legare said the old apparatus “is a 2,500-gallon tanker truck that we’ve had for 37 years. It’s kind of sad to see this truck go, but after 37 years of responding to calls, things start breaking down. It’s get up and go has kind of gone. It really is time for this truck to go.”

The chief said plans call for the purchase of a 3,000-gallon tanker. The vendor supplying the new vehicle “has pre-ordered 14 new trucks, and we’re looking to get one of those,” said Legare.

Highway Superintendent Greg Waid then explained to voters the need to borrow $74,500 for a new truck for his department.

“The truck we’re looking for is a pickup truck, which I would drive around, but it will have a plow on it also,” he said. “The current one is all rusted out and is 15 years old and needs to be replaced.”

Both debt exclusions were unanimously approved.