Stockbridge Finance Committee Rejects Southern Berkshire Ambulance Capital Funding 4-1

STOCKBRIDGE -- May 11, 2026, Stockbridge Finance Committee recommends against $25,000 Southern Berkshire Ambulance capital contribution ahead of May 18 town meeting. The committee voted 4-1 at its May 11 baby town meeting to decline recommending the ambulance capitalization request in Article 9, Item 19, with Finance Committee Chair Jay Bykovsky arguing the town does not fund capital equipment for outside nonprofit organizations and that no written service agreement had been received from Great Barrington. Jim Bolfance cast the lone dissenting vote, saying 12 years of unbilled service to Furnace District residents amounted to a significant subsidy the town had received without charge. A man identified as a former CFO of the Southern Berkshire Volunteer Ambulance Service told the committee the service responded to approximately 500 calls in Stockbridge over 12 years at no cost, making the $50,000 two-item request equivalent to roughly $100 per call. Select Board member Georgia Marsden, speaking as a resident, confirmed the board had still not received written documentation on the capital article as of Monday. The committee unanimously recommended the town's proposed $14,050,689 operating budget, a 4.7 percent increase, along with 19 other free-cash appropriations ranging from $300,000 for ambulance equipment to $44,300 for an invasive species study at Gould Meadows.