The district's new Fire Chief Christian Tobin, established the monthly meeting to get different perspectives from residents to develop solutions to the town's problems and work together to solve them.
A small crowd of residents convened for the district annual meeting that followed the election. All articles on the meeting warrant passed unanimously.
The Fire District on Tuesday will ask voters to approve a fiscal year 2025 budget that includes a 3.5 percent increase in the operation budget over the current year.
The meeting will take place at the Stationary Factory on Tuesday, May 14, at 7 p.m. The annual election will be held on the same day, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the fire station.
The district has been tightly budgeting the last three years in an effort to keep the taxes down but prices are continuing to increase so this cannot continue, Water Commission Chair James Driscoll said.
The town has a lot more pressing priorities it needs to attend to, including reconstruction projects and other priorities that are costly to the town, Select Board Vice Chairman Dan Esko said.
The rate accepted Wednesday morning at the tax classification hearing represents a five-cent increase over the last rate of 91 cents. Increased assessed values in town largely drove this rate.
The city is claiming that the district is using 66 million gallons of water per month, Water Superintendent Bob Benlien told the Board of Water Commissioners on Tuesday.
Prudential Committee Chair David Moresi mentioned the move during his report to the annual fire district meeting on Tuesday at Williamstown Elementary School.
In separate sessions with the Conservation Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals, fire district officials got the OK for a "cut and fill" project that will raise the grade of the area planned for construction to bring it roughly to the same elevation as Main Street (Route 2).