Letter: Dalton Police Budget for Special Town Meeting

To the Editor:

I have immense respect for the work performed by our Police Department. It is certainly a great comfort for the town's people that they can feel safe. However, reviewing the police budget was still necessary and appropriate to assure the townspeople that the department's budget was the best it could be. The Finance Committee did not target the police budget; instead, all departments underwent the same objective process. The misinformation presented by the Police Department at the May 19 Select Board meeting was very unfortunate.

Each year Dalton, town departments submit their anticipated budgets to the Select Board for the next fiscal year, based on current spending, expected salary increases and any anticipated new expenses. After preliminary approval of these budgets by the Select Board, the Finance Committee reviews prior-year spending and justifications for increases, aiming to limit tax increases. This process is applied consistently to all departments, including the Police Department.

This year, the Police Department submitted a budget of $1,664,924, an 8.4 percent increase. With a history of the police budget having significant money remaining at the end of the budget year, and with this year's budget projected by the town manager to rise significantly, it was appropriate that the police budget, like all other budgets, would have excesses trimmed to help the people of the town get some tax relief.

The surplus amounts in the police budget returned to free cash over the past few years are as follows:

During deliberations prior to the annual town meeting, the Finance Committee trimmed the police budget by $14,500 and approved the budget. At the annual town meeting, people with knowledge of Dalton Police procedures and costs presented potential budget cuts. The voters rejected the budget proposed on May 5.

With this information, the Finance Committee is ready for an additional review of excesses, not core funding of officers, the DARE program, the comfort dog, the town's K-9 or the crossing guard as mentioned in the recent news articles.

This process might save an additional $50,000 to $60,000, which I believe the town's struggling taxpayers would appreciate.

Normally when a budget is rejected by the voters at an annual town meeting, the rejected budget is reviewed by the Finance Committee prior to a revote at a special town meeting. Such a review is supported by the Dalton Finance bylaw, 97-2&3. I am concerned the Select Board at their May 19 meeting voted to skip this step and scheduled the original police budget for a town vote on June 9.

I believe the town's taxpayers should demand a Finance Committee review prior to a revote. If you share my concern, please express your views to the Select Board at their next meeting on May 27. Also, please plan to attend the special annual town meeting in June to assure that the appropriate police budget is adopted for Dalton.

William Drosehn
Dalton, Mass. 

Drosehn is chair of the Dalton Finance Committee. 

Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:04AM / Sunday, April 05, 2026

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing. 

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said. 

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today." 

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback. 

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director. 

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care.  Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires. 

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs. 

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said. 

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025.