Essex Town Meeting Approves Two Override Questions Totaling $454,449 for May Ballot

ESSEX — May 4, 2026 — Essex Annual Town Meeting approves two Proposition 2.5 overrides and a new river user fee, sends both to May 11 ballot. Voters at the May 4 meeting passed a $268,722 municipal operating override and a $185,727 Manchester-Essex Regional School District override — both contingent on approval at the town election next Monday — after Finance Committee member Ruth Perrine told town meeting that Essex has not passed an operational override in over 20 years and that health insurance costs alone rose 14.4 percent this year. Fire Chief Christian Hassel successfully defended a new Fire Captain/Fire Prevention Officer pay range of $90,000 to $120,000 against a citizen amendment, telling voters the position is "not to disrupt, but more to enhance" the department's volunteer model as it now manages 49 personnel and more than 600 annual incidents. A contested $5-per-foot seasonal river use fee on motorized vessel operators passed 104 to 97 after an age-exemption amendment failed 91 to 115; the fee, effective January 1, 2027, will fund the town's restricted waterway account. Voters also approved $75,000 for a secondary access road across the town-owned 30 Apple Street parcel to the DPW facility, rejecting three amendments and an indefinitely postpone motion 85 to 103, while a citizen petition to repeal the town's 2011 Open Space Residential Development zoning bylaw fell short of the required two-thirds vote.