About 30 town residents attended the annual budget hearing in the newly opened Greenfield Meetinghouse on Wednesday, Feb. 4. The hearing was the first official town event held in the Meetinghouse after renovations funded by a CDFA Community Center Grant.
“It’s great to be here in this beautiful new space,” said Select Board Chair Tom Bascom.
Both the March 10 elections and Town Meeting, which is Saturday, March 14, will be held at the Meetinghouse.
The Greenfield Select Board made no significant changes to the town’s warrant following the first public budget meeting in January.
New line items in this year’s town budget include a switch to in-house landscaping.
“The town already has equipment, and we are bringing this under the DPW budget,” Bascom said.
Select Board member Mike Borden reported that the Greenfield Fire Department has seen significant savings in dispatch costs after switching to Milford dispatch.
Several town residents praised the town’s new Police Chief, Frank Shea, for his leadership and ability to retain and attract new officers. The town now has three full-time and three part-time officers.
The town is also now part of the Monadnock Prosecutor Group, with the police department providing office space for prosecutor Angelika Wilkerson-Martin, who is assisted by Linda Paquette. The costs of the Prosecutor Group are shared by Greenfield, Fitzwilliam, New Ipswich, and Dublin.
“It is a great benefit to have direct access to a prosecutor in our office. We are able to sit down across the table from her and discuss cases, and it is a huge help,” Shea said.
New costs to the town in 2026 include a $50,000 increase in expenses at Wilton Ambulance. The ambulance service recently met with Wilton, Lyndeborough and Greenfield to request additional funds for equipment and staffing due to higher call volume.
Janice Pack of Wilton Ambulance said that changes in state law have affected billing and made the process more time-intensive.
“One full-time person could not do all the paperwork anymore,” Pack said.
The ambulance service also requested funds for motorized lift gurneys and new cardiac monitors.
The town has also proposed the creation of a new paving and infrastructure capital reserve fund for paving, sidewalks, and bridges. Bascom praised DPW Director Jim Morris for turning in a lower budget for 2026, and said that the increases were coming from the Select Board, not from Morris.
Morris said due to the harsh weather in 2025-2026, the town has already gone through 75% of what should have been a two-year supply of sand.
The town is has also proposed creating a capital reserve fund for assessment, which is required by the state every five years.
“The assessing process costs double what it did last time, and it’ s coming around again in four years,” Bascom said. “We will need to be prepared.”