ADAMS, Mass. — Town meeting members will vote on $19,530,254 spending plan for fiscal 2026, plus capital purchases, grant authorizations, and a new compensation plan. 

 

The annual town meeting is Tuesday, June 17, at 6 p.m. at the Memorial Building. A workshop will be held for the public and town meeting members on Thursday, June 12, at Town Hall.

 

The largest factors of the budget are personal services — employee wages, benefits, insurance and unemployment — at $8.1 million and school assessments at nearly $7 million, up about 3 percent. Article 11 requests utilization of $250,000 in free cash to keep total expenditures just under $5.1 million. 

 

The final budget total is a 4.36 percent increase over this year, and passage of all articles will leave the town with an excess levy capacity of $106,879.

 

The average single-family home tax bill is expected to be $4,264.

 

The town's budget is $10,206,896, of which $7,592,159 is personnel costs; the assessment to the Hoosac Valley Regional School District is $6,620,400 and to the Northern Berkshire Vocational School District (McCann) $1,069,566.

 

Town meeting will decide a number of capital purchases for $248,000 to be taken from available funds or free cash. These include $51,000 for desktop computers and a phone system upgrade at $48,500, which will also make the phones E911 compliant. 

 

The current phone tree system does not allow for emergency responders to call back to the person seeking 911 assistance. 

 

The technology budget was raised from $28,000 to $30,000 to account for new computers that can be upgraded to Windows 11, and the town administrator's line was raised to $125,000 including insurance.

 

The free cash will also be used to purchase a police cruiser at a cost of $76,000. Police Chief F. Scott Kelley had informed the Select Board of the dire need for a new vehicle.

 

The department had tried to purchase both of Clarksburg's dormant cruisers but had lost out to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 

 

Other purchases include a replacement truck lift for the Department of Public Works at $55,000, new snowplows at $7,500 and mobile equipment for parks and the cemetery at $10,000. 

 

Article 12 would transfer $175,000 from the reserve to the stabilization account and Article 13 would replenish the account at $175,000. The reserve account is used for extraordinary spending and is overseen by the Finance Committee to eliminate calling a special town meeting. 

 

Article 21 would appropriate $80,000 from the Economic Development Fund, currently at $127,443, for an executive director at the Greylock Glen Outdoor Center. 

 

A final article is a citizen's petition to require the Selectmen to hold monthly community forums on the Glen project, with a list of topics. This article, if passed, is unlikely to pass muster with Attorney General's Office as