ROWE — Of Rowe’s 327 registered voters, 67 made quick work of the 22 articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant with minimal discussion at Rowe Elementary School on Monday, approving each request.
The vast majority of articles passed unanimously. Article 20, one of the articles that did not achieve a unanimous vote in favor, was the $1.96 million library renovation project.
Library Director Molly Lane recounted how the project was in the works before she became library director 13 years ago, and that in its infancy, the project was about creating bathrooms that are compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations. However, when the Library Feasibility Committee was formed 18 months ago, committee members realized that to create these ADA-compliant bathrooms, they would lose part of the collection space at the Rowe Town Library.
“It’s impossible to do without a renovation,” Lane said about making the bathrooms accessible. “What we propose here is a renovation that will be accessible for everyone.”
With a 65-1 in favor of the library article, the town will transfer $1 million from Capital Stabilization and borrow $960,000 to complete the project for a total of $1.96 million.
Library Feasibility Committee member Kathy Atwood, who also serves on the library’s board of trustees, commented after the meeting that she knows a lot of residents who came to Annual Town Meeting specifically for the library renovation vote. By comparison, 49 Rowe residents attended last year’s Annual Town Meeting.
The next steps for the Library Feasibility Committee include meeting as a group with SSV Architects, the company that provided the estimates and illustrations for the library project. Selectboard member and Library Feasibility Committee member Ed Silva said construction “should start really quick.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t all for nothing,” Lane said.
The only other article that didn’t achieve a unanimous vote in favor was the transfer of $154,424 from free cash and $5,576 from stabilization to pay the $160,000 overage of the fiscal year 2026 mid-year health insurance increase. Finance Committee Chair Dan Pallotta had previously said that without this mid-year increase, and the further increase of health insurance costs heading into fiscal year 2027, Rowe’s FY27 budget would be quite similar to that of the current fiscal year.
The FY27 budget, which was broken up into several warrant articles, passed unanimously. The total came to $5.89 million, which represents a 9.7% increase over FY26. The largest line item increase is for group medical insurance, which saw a $420,000 hike.
The education portion of the budget, which sits at $1.9 million, represents 32.2% of the FY27 budget. According to Board of Assessors Chair Frederick Williams, the tax rate for FY27 is $5.57 per $1,000 of assessed value, an increase of 33 cents over FY26.
