ROWE — Rising health insurance costs, increases to the Fire Department’s budget and a $1.9 million library renovation project will be handled at Annual Town Meeting next week.
The meeting will take place on Monday, May 11, starting at 6:30 p.m. at Rowe Elementary School. Of the 22 articles on the warrant, 10 relate to the town’s operating budget, while others deal with appropriations and transfers. The school assessment is Article 12.
Article 16 concerns pensions and insurance for town employees. While there isn’t a significant increase in the town’s assessment to the Franklin Regional Retirement System or unemployment insurance, what saw a jump of $420,000 was the group health/dental/life insurance. This area saw a 52.5% increase heading into fiscal year 2027, when compared to the start of fiscal year 2026. In total, pension and insurance rose by $430,769.
“The biggest increase is in health insurance,” Finance Committee Chair Dan Pallotta said. “Health insurance increased 20% mid-year, and on top of that another 20% for next year or something close to that. It’s a big jump on health insurance. If we didn’t have the health insurance jump, I think the budget would’ve been similar to last year.”
Another big increase can be found in Article 10, which is the public safety aspect of the budget. This jump comes from the Fire Department, with Pallotta explaining that the department is expanding its coverage.
In addition to fires, the Rowe department also answers calls for emergency medical services. This is reflected in Article 18, which asks voters to see if the town will appropriate $40,000 to outfit its fire trucks with EMS equipment.
“The Fire Department is increasing services to try and include some basic EMS, and I mean basic, because we’re an all-call department,” Pallotta said.
After a process that began in late 2024, Article 20 asks voters whether they will approve funding for the Rowe Town Library renovation, which would expand the library, as well the bathrooms, to make them comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. If the expansion is not approved by voters, part of the existing library will be used to enlarge the current bathroom to make it ADA-compliant.
At Wednesday’s Library Feasibility Committee meeting, Chair Justine Krumm said it is important for everyone at Annual Town Meeting to visualize how the proposed library renovations would benefit them. There were two bids presented to the Library Feasibility Committee that were very close to each other, with one coming from Henry General Contractors and the other from Diversified Construction Services.
After discussion, the group came up with a $1.9 million renovation project, which was brought to the Finance Committee at Thursday’s meeting. Pallotta said voters will decide, calling it an “up-or-down vote on what the town is going to spend … on a library addition.”
Article 21 looks to see if the town will move $154,424 from free cash and transfer $5,576 from the Stabilization Fund for the purpose of paying off FY26’s mid-year health insurance increase. This increase is the 20% increase that Pallotta referred to.
“All the departments did really well this year,” he said. “Rowe’s a really well-managed town.”
The full Annual Town Meeting warrant can be viewed at rowe-ma.gov/news/newsfile_14177_FY27_ATM_Warrant.pdf.
