At this year’s Town meeting, residents will vote on 31 proposals related to infrastructure, school budgets, and local bylaws. The proposals, known as warrant articles, include standard provisions to fund Town services and changes to Town laws. The meeting will be held on May 19 at Williamstown Elementary School, and is open to all registered voters in Town.
Before advancing to Town Meeting, where they are voted on directly, warrant articles are proposed by Town committees, which also provide their own recommendations on which articles to adopt. Warrant articles can be prepared by Town committees or are submitted through citizens’ petitions, which require ten signatures from Town residents to be included in the warrant.
At the meeting, attendees are given the opportunity to debate each article before voting. Head of the Select Board Steph Boyd said in an interview with the Record that she expects several articles, including three citizens’ petitions, to spark debate this year.
The first citizens’ petition, which was unanimously recommended by the Select Board, is a proposal to ban second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs), a form of rodent poison. SGARs can harm animals or people who come into contact with an affected rodent. “Non-target animals including birds of prey, wild mammals, pets, and even young children are often unintentionally exposed to these poisons through ingestion of poisoned rodents or contaminated carcasses,” the petition reads.
The second petition, also unanimously recommended by the Select Board, involves the use of sewage sludge-derived materials as fertilizer on Town land, including homes and farms. This sludge is often contaminated with biosolids containing PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” which pose hazards to public health and the environment. According to Sarah Gardner, a lecturer in environmental studies at the College, it was common practice for residents and farmers to use compost made from sewage sludge in their gardens and farms before the Town realized it may be contaminated. Some Town residents have argued against the petition on the grounds that it will be hard to enforce.
The third citizens’ petition, which none of the four voting Board members recommended, hopes to expand a previous Town law that limited single-use plastic bags. The petition aims to ban the use of smaller-product bags that people may use in stores to collect fresh produce.
Boyd said that she also expects a debate over school budgets at this year’s meeting. A group of local parents have been pushing for an increase in the elementary school’s annual operating budget in order to decrease class sizes and hire a math specialist. The group hopes to allot an additional $120,000 to the school budget for the 2026-27 academic year. The issue has been a source of conflict among some Town residents since March. If the increased allocation is approved, according to Boyd, the Town would need to increase property taxes for residents in order to fund it.
Funding for the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) may also spur discussion at Town Meeting. The CPC is a group of the Town government that must equally distribute funding for four distinct purposes: affordable housing, recreation, open space, and historical preservation.
The company managing the construction of the Town’s new skate park, which was ready to begin construction in February, asked the CPC for $350,000 to support the project. In addition, the Williamstown Rural Land Foundation asked for $25,000 to renovate its historic barns and the Williamstown Historical Museum requested $4,000 to preserve a historic doctor’s buggy.
Images Cinema also asked the CPC for approximately $20,000 to renovate its building on Spring Street. Boyd said this request has been contentious in Town, given that Images recently fundraised $2 million for the project.
The Town’s annual budget is currently $25 million, an increase of 9 percent from last year. According to Boyd, this increase is primarily due to rising healthcare costs across the U.S. and a decrease in both state and federal funding from both Massachusetts State and the federal government. To make up for the loss in funding, the Town must increase taxes or put off certain infrastructure and maintenance projects.
Gardner emphasized that the Town government’s procedures allow all residents to have a direct impact on decision-making. “There’s a lot of work to be done,” Gardner said in an interview with the Record. “Here in town, you can influence governmental decisions, and you can be involved in elections every single day if you want.”
The Williamstown Agricultural Commission has also requested $25,000 from the CPC to create an agricultural preservation fund. Gardner, who leads the commission, said it will use the money to preserve farmlands in Town. “We have a farmland crisis in Massachusetts,” Gardner said. “We are bleeding farmland, and it is being converted at an unprecedented rate.”
Even if the CPC gives out all of the requested funds, it will still have around $13,000 left from this year’s funds for future use.
Voters will also likely be split on whether to allocate funding to Sand Springs, a pool and recreation center in Town, according to Boyd. She said the center has recently suffered from financial issues, but that some Town residents still view the center as a private club, rather than an open space for the community. “It’s been difficult for them to stay afloat, and so they often come to the community preservation looking for some funding,” Boyd said. “I’d like to get them on solid footing, but it’s been a struggle.”
The rising financial burden on homeowners in Town is a persistent issue for Boyd and other Town government representatives, and one that frequently comes up at Town meetings. According to Boyd’s personal May newsletter, this year, a median value home in Town will see a $600 increase in property taxes, or about $50 a month, because of increased property taxes. “We are all going to have to dig deeper into our pockets to support our community this year,” Boyd wrote in the newsletter. “We will need to be creative and find thoughtful approaches to revenue generation to keep Williamstown an affordable and welcoming community.”
Town Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Williamstown Elementary School.
