LEVERETT — Voters at Saturday’s Annual Town Meeting will decide whether to fund a new access path to town conservation land — a move that could end an ongoing legal dispute over a Shutesbury Road trailhead — and whether to keep the former Bradford M. Field Memorial Library in town ownership.
Action on the 37-article warrant, which includes the town election from the floor of Town Meeting, begins at the Leverett Elementary School gymnasium at 9 a.m.
The warrant features an $8.45 million budget proposal for fiscal year 2027, representing a $355,758, or 4.4%, increase over this fiscal year’s $8.1 million budget. The spending plan preserves most existing services without needing a Proposition 2½ tax-cap override.
Spending for the elementary and regional schools combined will be $5.43 million, up $290,318 over the $5.14 million being spent this fiscal year.
The town budget includes 3.2% cost-of-living adjustments and also covers the rising costs of health insurance.
The Selectboard is seeking $100,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to cover the design and construction of a drivable trail at Woodard’s Corner. This 600-foot path would go across town-owned land from Shutesbury Road to the Gordon S. King Life Estate.
At a heated Special Town Meeting last fall, residents were deadlocked on taking by eminent domain a small portion of land from the Evans-Marlowe family. That family filed a Land Court lawsuit in June 2024 against the town and its Conservation Commission due to concerns about the public using a strip of land to get to the Blueberry Patch, also known as the Gordon S. King Life Estate, a former Christmas tree farm.
The idea is that accessing the site with a new trail would mean the lawsuit “goes away,” said Selectboard member Jed Proujansky.
Another $391,372 is sought in CPA funding so the Friends of the North Leverett Sawmill can pay for structural stabilization of what is also called the Slarrow Mill. The money will be used for immediate repairs to the building that is considered a witness property to the American Revolution.
Finally, $26,000 in CPA funding would go to support affordable housing at the Leverett Affordable Housing Trust, pending voter approval.
For the Field building, voters will determine if the 1 Shutesbury Road site should remain in town ownership, or if it should be sold. The building has no running water or septic system and has been a museum since the town opened the Leverett Library in 2003.
If the town keeps the building, it could be adaptively reused as a multipurpose space, including archival storage for Leverett’s historical documents and artifacts; serve a town-supported function; or generate revenue to offset ongoing operating costs.
The Planning Board is bringing forward proposed changes to existing zoning bylaws.
One would adjust the town’s kennel bylaw, allowing personal kennels in all zoning districts as accessory uses. A new definition, adhering to state law, states that a kennel “shall mean a pack or collection of dogs on a single premise, including a commercial boarding or training kennel, commercial breeder kennel, domestic charitable corporation kennel, personal kennel or veterinary kennel.”
Another zoning article would change the language for small-scale solar installations, defined as ground-mounted solar of less than 1,750 square feet, so that they “shall be subject to site plan review if in excess of 20 feet in height up to 35.”
Other zoning articles aim to clarify the rules around accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and adopt a model Floodplain Overlay District, removing the existing Flood Hazard District and Streams and Lake Protection District.
Spending outside budget
Outside of the budget, there is additional spending proposed from the town’s stabilization and free cash accounts. These requests include $600,000 to buy and equip a tanker truck for the Fire Department; $113,060 to fund the capital plan; $75,000 to buy and equip a tractor for the schools and Highway Department; $45,000 to buy a wing plow for one of the Highway Department’s existing plow trucks; and $38,575 to buy and equip a road grader for the Highway Department.
Other spending includes $25,000 to buy wireless access points at Leverett Elementary School, $14,000 to replace the town’s automated external defibrillators, $6,300 for an audit of fiscal year 2025 Other-Post Employment Benefits, $5,250 to become a member of the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District, $5,200 to buy tires and wheels for the Rescue 1 fire truck, $1,300 to pay for heat in the Field building, and $9,750 to resolve previous fiscal years’ outstanding account differences between the elementary school and town.
There is an article to authorize the Selectboard to establish and maintain a municipal light plant that could be used for operation of an electric and solar microgrid system.
Articles being brought by petition ask to transfer $200,000 in free cash to the Board of Assessors so that the town’s property tax rate can be reduced, implement a 25-mph speed limit inside “thickly settled” or business districts, and accept Camp Road as a public way.
The full 37-article Annual Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at leverett.ma.us/files/May_2_2026_Annual_Town_Meeting_Warrant.pdf.
