Barre Town Meeting Adopts First Battery Storage Zoning Rules, Buys New Ambulance

BARRE — December 16, 2025 — Barre Special Town Meeting enacts battery storage zoning rules and authorizes $270,000 in equipment spending. The December 16 meeting unanimously adopted a new Zoning Chapter 140, Section 140-10.2 governing battery energy storage systems, which Planning Board member Edward Kelly said passed favorably after a properly noticed public hearing. One resident told the meeting she and her neighbors are "100% opposed" to such facilities in Barre, while praising the bylaw's safety guardrails, including a 500-foot setback from dwellings. Voters also approved a $205,301 transfer from ambulance receipts to replace a fire department ambulance lost in an incident involving Verizon, after a fire department member warned that the town's insurance policies lack stated-value coverage on high-value vehicles — a gap that left the town with only $185,000 in appraisal recovery on the destroyed unit. A $64,389 transfer from the General Stabilization Fund for a new DPW superintendent truck passed despite a public challenge from resident Robert Cain, who argued the specified F-350 model would be over-capacity for municipal use and create insurance liability.