Antrim voters approved all proposed warrant articles at Town Meeting on Thursday night, including a $1.2 million bond to repair roads damaged by severe flooding in recent years.
A total of 98 residents attended the meeting.
Select Board member Bob Edwards spoke in support of the proposed bond.
“This article authorizes the town to secure the best bond possible to fund these repairs,” Edwards said. “Right now, we’re looking at a debt service of about $138,000 a year.”
The bond was voted by paper ballot, with 94 residents in favor, and 4 against.
Members of the Select Board and road agent Tyler Tommila answered questions about the bond, which town officials believe is necessary to “get out ahead on road repairs.”
Select Board Chair Mike Ott said that while the town budgets appropriately for road repairs and maintenance every year, two years of severe flooding left the town unable to keep up with major repairs in addition to routine and scheduled maintenance.
“By taking out a bond we will be able to hire an outside contractor with much larger equipment to get this work done and leave our own crews free to keep working on what had been scheduled for the year,” Ott said.
Tommila told residents the bond will not significantly impact or change the tax burden, because the previous bond to fund the new police station will expire this year.
If the article for the bond had failed, the town would have added $125,000 to the DPW budget for the year.
All warrant articles pass
Voters passed all proposed warrant articles for 2026, including the town’s operating budget of $5,388,497. Ott noted that the budget represented a 1.1% increase since the previous year.
“Last year we had to make some really tough cuts, and we have worked extremely hard to have a flat budget while providing the same services to the town,” he said.
During a discussion of Article 7, which establishes a new capital reserve fund for weather-related emergencies, several residents spoke about the ongoing impact of severe weather patterns.
Fire Chief Marshall Gale said that all of his emergency-related training indicates that severe weather emergencies will continue to occur.
“This trend is going to continue. FEMA is now understaffed and underfunded, and they’re not going to be there for us,” Gale said.
Resident Martha Piniello agreed, saying, “These emergencies are just going to keep coming.”
Ott added that Antrim never receives funds from Hillsborough County, since the county includes larger cities such as Manchester and Nashua, and Antrim fails to meet the minimum threshold for emergency funds.
Ott cited the damage to the Liberty Farm Bridge caused by flooding in 2023, which necessitated overtime funds for the police and fire departments and unexpected costs for the DPW.
“This is a reserve fund for emergencies. It’s not something we’re going to use every year,” he said.
A proposed amendment to Article 9, which proposed the town add an annual line item of $4,200 in operating expenses to support the work of the Antrim Community Board, failed to gain enough support to pass. The proposed amendment would have supported the $4,200 funding for 2026, but removed the language making it an annual line item.
Many residents spoke in support of the Antrim Community Board, citing the work the board has done for the town.
Voters approved the original warrant article for a $4,200 line supporting the Antrim Community Board.
Resident Martha Piniello spoke up after lengthy discussions on several articles, encouraging people to take part in the town’s budget-building process prior to Town Meeting.
“Allow me to be a grumpy old lady,” she said. “People don’t understand the budget process, and a lot of these comments and discussion should not be happening here at Town Meeting. People need to participate all year in order to understand.”
Campbell Town Forest established
No one spoke against a proposal to establish the Campbell Town Forest, a wooded parcel adjacent to Campbell Pond located between the southern spur of Riley Mountain and Pierce Lake Road in the northern part of Antrim.
In January 2025, the Antrim Conservation Commission received a $115,000 LCHIP grant, which enabled it to purchase a 112-acre property abutting Campbell Pond. The pond, which had been accessible to the public only through a right-of-way across private land, can now be accessed via a public Class VI road. The new town forest will incorporate the recently conserved land.
Petition warrant article addresses state leadership
Article 18, a petition warrant article submitted by town residents, calls for the New Hampshire Legislature to “protect local taxpayers by ensuring adequate state revenues for essential services and by avoiding policies that shift costs onto local taxpayers.”
In public comment, many residents spoke up about the state’s failure to adequately fund public schools, as determined by a ruling of the state Supreme Court, and cited the lack of school funding as a factor in consistently rising property taxes.
Residents approved the article, which states that the town will send the results of the vote to the governor and all members of the General Court representing Antrim within 30 days. The article states that “recent state budgets have reduced or eliminated key revenue sources, forcing towns and counties to raise property taxes to maintain education, healthcare, county nursing homes, public safety, and infrastructure. These shifts burden working families, strain local budgets, limit flexibility, and undermine long-term community prosperity.”