HEATH — Residents will be asked to consider buying a $125,000 truck for the Highway Department and setting aside money to hire a new town administrator at Annual Town Meeting on Saturday, May 10.

Voters will weigh in on the 22-article warrant, which covers bylaw changes, the town’s budget and capital purchases. The meeting will commence at 9 a.m. at the Jacobs Road Municipal Center.

“It’s a fairly tame warrant,” Selectboard member Elissa Viarengo said during a recent review of the warrant.

Article 12 asks voters if the town should appropriate $17,500 to a new town coordinator transition account to cover advertising, consulting and training costs for the new hire when longtime Town Coordinator Hilma Sumner retires later this year.

“When we actually advertise for the position and when somebody comes in, there’s all these little pieces,” Selectboard Chair Robyn Provost-Carlson said.

With Article 3, voters will be asked to support a $1.79 million town operating budget for fiscal year 2026, a 7.7% increase from FY25. This includes $631,217 for general government, $129,001 for public safety, $550,855 for public works, $27,042 for health and human services, $61,879 for culture and recreation, $146,217 in debt repayments, and $241,967 in retirement and insurance benefits.

The budget increases pay for more hours for a municipal office assistant, higher health insurance costs and inflated costs of Highway Department materials.

“It’s a tight budget,” Provost-Carlson said.

In education costs, the town is being assessed $982,290 for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District and $115,554 for Franklin County Technical School. The town of Rowe is also requesting reimbursement from Heath for a shared after-school activities bus in the amount of $6,935.

In addition to the town operating budget and education costs, which total nearly $2.89 million, voters will be asked to approve $159,938 in capital expenses. Articles 6, 7, 8 and 10 request a total of $26,983 for school maintenance and repairs. Article 14 asks for $8,000 to replace computers at the Jacobs Road Municipal Center and Article 13 asks for $125,000 to buy a new truck for the Highway Department.

During a budget review in March, Highway Superintendent Tyson Howard told the Selectboard the department has a 2016 Dodge that is past its useful lifespan and in dire need of replacement. This past winter, it has needed costly repairs and was unreliable during snow storms.

“That truck has cost us money pretty much every storm, but it’s also the dependability of the truck,” Howard said. “It’s added overtime hours to the rest of the crew because we have to spend longer to go out and try to do what that truck was supposed to do.”

Howard told the board that if a new truck is not purchased, the town will need to increase its budget to pay for contracted services to handle plowing in the winter.

Other articles on the warrant include:

■Closing the Opioid Settlement Stabilization Fund and transferring the $869.53 in it to a new Opioid Settlement Special Revenue Fund.

■Replacing all references of “public way,” “private way” and “road” in the town’s zoning bylaws to say “street.”

To view the full 22-article warrant, visit townofheath.org/files/ATE_ATM_Warrant_05-2025-p.pdf.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.