COLRAIN — Voters will be presented with a citizen’s petition asking if the town supports “An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts” (S.860/H.1405) and a $2.78 million operating budget for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District at Annual Town Meeting.
The meeting will take place on Tuesday, May 5, at 6 p.m. at Colrain Central School. Those in attendance will vote on the fiscal year 2027 budget and whether to authorize funding to convert a 2001 International Chassis into a highway vehicle, among other proposals on the 25-article warrant.
Selectboard Vice Chair Ben Eastman said he thinks the articles are all “pretty straightforward. There’s nothing there that’s hidden or any hidden agendas.”
Colrain’s total budget, including education, sits at $5.6 million. Education funding (consisting of the Mohawk Trail and Franklin County Technical School operating and capital assessments) represents 58% of the budget. Colrain’s operating assessment to Mohawk Trail, in Article 7, is seeing a 10.8% increase from FY26. The Mohawk Trail capital assessment is $68,379 and Franklin Tech’s is $4,808.
“I just really think people should look into [the school budget],” Selectboard Chair Emily Thurber said. “I know that [Mohawk Trail] gets a lot of grief for having a high budget, but they really did cut a lot. If they cut any more, we won’t have a school, we won’t have teachers, we won’t have anything. … We’re asking them that they do vote to fund the school budget even though it’s not sustainable because we are looking for solutions.”
Colrain’s proposed omnibus budget, outlined in Article 4, is $2.34 million, seeing only a $5,214, or 0.22%, increase over FY26.
Article 24 proposes amending Colrain’s zoning bylaws by replacing the term “Board of Selectmen” with “Select Board.” If approved by at least a two-thirds majority, this article would also change all uses of the term “selectmen” to “selectperson,” and in all past uses of the term selectmen, it “shall be taken to be mean selectperson,” according to the language of the warrant article.
Article 15 and 16 are connected, and are both related to the rehabilitation and restoration of a 2001 International Chassis for use as a highway vehicle. Article 15 asks if the town will transfer $85,000 from the Highway Vehicle Stabilization Fund, and Article 16 asks to raise and appropriate or transfer from free cash $10,000 to buy a snowplow.
The vehicle is currently owned by Colrain and was put out to auction, but wasn’t receiving attention from interested bidders. At the April 14 Selectboard meeting, the board agreed it would be better to rehabilitate a truck the town already owns than to purchase a new one that could cost upwards of $460,000.
“One [article] was set up for the work of it and the other one was set up [for] custom parts that needed to be set aside for it,” Eastman explained. “That’s why it broke down into two.”
Article 25 is a citizen’s petition, which would see if the town approves a resolution supporting Medicare for All. The petition, brought forward by resident David Greenberg, is nonbinding. He had previously said at the Feb. 24 Selectboard meeting, “In 2017, a whole bunch of towns in western Mass had nonbinding resolutions like what I’m presenting now, and it passed overwhelmingly, including in Colrain by a significant margin.”
According to the bill summary, the proposal being reviewed by state legislators “would transition the commonwealth to a single-payer health care system by removing profit-driven health insurance companies as the barrier between patients and providers, and instead allow the government to reimburse health care providers directly.”
Thurber said this article may generate discussion among attendees at Town Meeting.
Other articles on the warrant include:
- Article 9: To see if the town will vote to transfer $7,500 from the Assessors’ Stabilization Fund to purchase upgraded assessment software to make it compatible to work with outside assessors and to meet current industry standards. Selectboard members say this would allow for seamless work with outside vendors.
- Article 10: To see if the town will transfer $5,000 from the Technology Stabilization Fund for the town’s server-to-cloud conversion project.
- Article 17: To see if voters approve the creation of a special purpose stabilization fund that would set aside money for the design, construction, reconstruction and major repairs of town-owned buildings and facilities.
The full Annual Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at colrain-ma.gov/files/Annual_Town_Meeting_Warrant.
