Select Board adopts 25 mph zones townwide

Select Board · Meeting of May 4, 2026

Barre's Select Board adopted townwide 25 mph speed zones and then joined the Finance Committee to review a $16.1 million fiscal 2027 budget built on one-time money. Town Administrator Melanie Jackson presented a plan using $605,000 of an estimated $800,000 in free cash and pulling $62,000 from the town's roughly $687,000 stabilization fund to cover snow and ice costs, betting a pending $100 million state winter-recovery supplemental will offset the rest. "If you have it, you spend it.

If you don't have it, you spend it," Jackson said, calling the pattern unsustainable. The board also authorized the fire chief to sell roughly $1,000 in surplus equipment, approved pay raises for DPW water operator Jacob Rourke, and previewed a Town Meeting warrant article that would strip the DPW Commission of hiring authority over the DPW superintendent, per state Inspector General recommendations.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of May 4, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.