Lanesborough Select Board Restructures Fire Truck Financing Articles Ahead of Town Meeting

LANESBOROUGH — May 26, 2026 — Lanesborough Select Board restructures fire truck financing articles and tables mall district dissolution ahead of June 9 town meeting. The board voted 3-0 on each of three reorganized warrant articles that would transfer $225,000 from free cash into a fire truck stabilization account, then draw $605,000 from that account toward a new engine, and authorize borrowing of up to $208,366 under G.L. c. 44 s. 7 as a worst-case backstop — the total project cost is $713,366.08 with a $100,000 contingency attached. Fire Chief Jeff Faginski argued the town's 30-year-old Engine 2 has exceeded safe service life, recounting a 1997 crash involving a then-34-year-old reserve engine that hospitalized a firefighter on Route 7. The board also voted unanimously to remove the Baker Hill Road District dissolution article from the warrant after a presentation warning that dissolution would eliminate $500,000 to $550,000 in annual town contributions — roughly 4 percent of the total budget — and require an estimated $289-per-year property tax increase for the average homeowner; JMJ representative Blake Mensing countered that the mall's pending sale to Cypress Equities, under contract since May 11, cannot close unless the district is dissolved.