Wenham Select Board warns override likely this year

Select Board · Meeting of January 6, 2026

Wenham Select Board warned a property tax override is increasingly likely as the town faces a $300,000 budget gap for fiscal 2027. Town Administrator Steve Poulos said the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District's budget request now stands $730,000 over the town's levy capacity after a $235,557 reduction, while a separate $10.3 million high school roof project would carry roughly $155,500 in annual debt-exclusion costs. Chair Benjamin Tymann said rising insurance costs, not school overspending, are driving the shortfall, and Clerk Deirdre Pierotti said "we can't afford ourselves capped at two and a half when everything else is escalating at much different rates." The board also swore in two new police sergeants and two full-time officers, approved a probationary firefighter, granted National Grid a utility pole permit on Maple Street, and endorsed a test run shifting sidewalk snow-clearing priority toward Topsfield Road.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of January 6, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.