Plymouth board holds second public budget hearing, sets 2025 warrant for town meeting

The Plymouth Select Board opened its second public budget hearing and reviewed the town’s 35 warrant articles ahead of the 2025 town meeting, stepping through elections, zoning amendments, the general fund budget, personnel actions and capital projects before voting to accept the warrant as presented.

The hearing matters because the warrant sets what voters will consider at Town Meeting — including the proposed municipal budget and a set of zoning and capital items that would change local policy or authorize spending. Board members said there were no surprises compared with earlier budget discussions and invited members of the public to ask questions about specific articles.

Board members summarized the articles in order and paused for public comment. The articles include routine election and appointment items (moderator, town clerk, tax collector, cemetery and library trustees), several petitioned zoning amendments (including a petition to change the town’s agricultural zone and a petition to make the planning board an elected body), and four planning-board–sponsored zoning amendments covering industrial/commercial district boundaries, commercial storage, parking requirements and language clarifications for permitted uses.

The general-fund budget appears as a single summary warrant article asking voters to raise and appropriate $9,900,000 for the town. The board said this figure matches the budget material presented at prior meetings.

Public-safety items were highlighted: separate warrant articles cover police parking and a school-resource-officer offset with SAU 48, and an article proposes a new full-time firefighter position (the third year of a three-year staffing plan) that would add one permanent firefighter; the board said new hiring positions are presented as separate warrant articles so voters can decide on headcount increases.

Union negotiations were also on the warrant. Article 14 addresses a three-year police contract and estimated increases; article 15 would authorize a special town meeting if article 14 is defeated. Article 16 covers a one-year fire-department contract after the police and fire units began bargaining separately, and article 17 would permit a special town meeting if article 16 fails.

Several highway and road construction articles were listed (Emerson Street and Highland Street), and a long series of capital items (articles 20–29) includes leases for a fire engine, fire tanker and ambulance; a highway dump truck lease; a police cruiser; a repeater on Hemp Hill; police taser equipment; and a glass-removal item for the recycling center. Article 30 would fund a building needs assessment for future emergency management facilities; article 31 requests a natural-resource-inventory (NRI) for the Conservation Commission; and article 32 proposes deposits to several capital-reserve funds.

During public comment, Greg Netner, treasurer of the Plymouth Conservation Commission, asked about the NRI article’s dollar amounts and how they compared with the commission’s prior review. The board clarified the NRI was being presented as a two-phase project, with the initial phase on this warrant and a later phase to come if needed. A board member and town staff said the initial NRI funding would not affect the town’s tax rate because it would use previously allocated funds.

A Penny Youth Center (PYC) board member, also speaking as a citizen’s clerk, said she was “disappointed that we’re getting our funding cut, especially with the potential bill that Bill Bolton introduced,” and the board noted nonprofit allocations had been reviewed by a committee that recommended changes to right-size allotments.

The board answered procedural questions about which articles were petitioned and which were recommended by the Planning Board. It also confirmed that some items (for example, municipal airport and transportation enhancement withdrawals) draw from special-revenue or capital-reserve accounts rather than from tax-rate increases.

At the hearing’s close, a motion to accept the warrant as presented, with the written recommendations and the clarifications noted during the hearing, was made and seconded. The board voted by voice in favor; the motion passed and the Select Board closed the public hearing and adjourned.

The warrant as accepted will proceed to the town warrant and be presented to voters at the upcoming town meeting. Several articles (zoning amendments, the NRI, the firefighter position, capital leases and the town budget) will be on the floor for deliberation and vote by town meeting attendees.