CHARLEMONT — Voters are set to consider a $4.6 million budget for fiscal year 2026, purchasing a $150,000 fire truck and adopting a short-term rental bylaw at Annual Town Meeting.

The meeting will commence at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27, at Hawlemont Regional School. Residents will be asked to vote on 29 warrant articles, which include the operating and capital budgets, and a few bylaw amendments.

Article 5 asks voters to approve a $4.6 million town operating budget. Town Administrator Sarah Reynolds said the budget represents a 4.3% increase from FY25’s figures, and “mostly consists of school-related expenses.”

“We’re looking at a 4.3% increase, which is not that bad given where we started,” Reynolds said.

The town’s education costs for FY26 will be nearly $2.5 million, which includes a $788,742 assessment for Mohawk Trail Regional School (a 4.39% decrease), a $1.4 million assessment for Hawlemont Regional School (a 6.45% increase), and $272,000 for Franklin County Technical School and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School tuition (a 43.9% increase)

Reynolds said the vocational school increases came from spikes in enrollment. Other increases to the town’s operating budget cover increased rates for health and property insurance, a 2.5% cost-of-living increase for town employees, and fuel and electricity.

In addition to the town’s operating budget, voters will be asked to approve a $421,091 capital budget. If approved, Articles 12 to 18 will authorize the town to buy a new $26,740 Lund University Cardiopulmonary Assist System (LUCAS) device for the ambulance department, pay Charlemont’s $5,433 share of the cost to replace Mohawk Trail Regional School’s water heater, install $10,846 heat pumps at Town Hall, buy a $70,000 over-rail tractor mower, purchase a $150,000 dump truck and acquire a $150,000 used fire engine.

Reynolds said most of the capital purchases will be paid for using free cash, but the town will likely have to borrow money to replace Engine 2, a 1996 International apparatus that is past its useful lifespan.

“The problem we have is we had applied and gotten a legislative earmark for it, but the federal funds for it have been cut,” Reynolds said.

Other financial articles include annual appropriations in the amount of $20,000 for bridge repairs, $40,000 for infrastructure repairs and $17,000 for the annual audit. Reynolds said the town has a lot of roadway miles and quite a few aging bridges that need maintenance and repairs.

“We’ve been working the last several years on our bridges,” Reynolds said. “We ask for this money every year for engineering and design work to improve our infrastructure. It helps with grants to have these projects shovel-ready.”

Charlemont residents will also be voting on a bylaw aiming to regulate short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, that is modeled after bylaws adopted in the neighboring community of Buckland.

The bylaw proposed in Article 25 states that to operate a short-term rental in Charlemont, the property owner must seek a license from the Selectboard and meet all health, building and fire codes on the local and state levels. Licensees must maintain liability insurance and cannot rent a property for less than 24 hours or for commercial uses. The bylaw notes there will only be 25 available licenses in town.

Article 27 asks voters to support a tax on commercial recreational activities. Reynolds said the article does not authorize the town to implement the tax itself, but to petition the state Legislature for a special act creating a 3% tax on ticket sales for recreational activities in Charlemont. Residents have previously voted to approve the petition, but legislation has yet to be passed, so Charlemont voters must reaffirm their support.

Other articles on the warrant include a proposal from the Agricultural Commission to reduce building permit fees from $7 per $1,000 valuation to $4 per $1,000 valuation for agricultural buildings in an effort to help and attract farmers; and a request for $6,667 to pay for Charlemont’s share of the Mohawk Trail late bus, shared with Heath and Rowe.

The full 29-article warrant can be found at charlemont-ma.us/n/20204/Annual-Town-Meeting-Warrant-2025.

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