Stockbridge Annual Town Meeting Approves $14 Million in Spending for Fiscal Year 2027

LENOX -- May 18, 2026, Stockbridge Annual Town Meeting approves $14 million in combined spending for fiscal year 2027. Voters working with electronic clickers for the first time passed a $9,726,599 municipal operating budget (122 to 12), a $4,287,081 Berkshire Hills Regional School District assessment (109 to 24), and roughly $490,000 in Community Preservation Fund grants covering affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space projects. The evening's most contested votes centered on Article 9, Sections 18 and 19: $25,000 each to Southern Berkshire Ambulance Service for Furnace District coverage and toward a new ambulance purchase. Finance Committee member Rich Bradway told the meeting the committee had been given a figure of 49 annual calls when it approved the request, but that a fire chief email received that morning put actual Furnace District calls at two for fiscal year 2026; a Southern Berkshire representative countered that zip-code-based tracking systems undercount true service volumes and that the town had received 12 years of unbilled service. Section 18 passed 119 to 15 and the more contested Section 19 passed 76 to 54. Voters also approved an ADU zoning amendment bringing the town into compliance with state law (107 to 24), and cleared the way for pedestrian bridge engineering at Interlaken by discontinuing a 400-foot road segment (79 to 3), defeating a conditioning amendment 88 to 14.