Residents in the community of around 1,700 at the northern border of Berkshire County gathered in the town school to quickly approve every article on the town meeting warrant, including an almost $1.8 million operating budget – down $114,000 from the current year – and an almost $3 million school budget, up around $130,000 from fiscal year 2024. Every vote was unanimous except for one: the decision to put the commonwealth’s Community Preservation Act funding mechanism for Clarksburg on this year’s ballot.
“And there was only a handful of people that were uncertain about how that's going to work, because it is going to create a surcharge for property values that are over $100,000. So, I think they were more questioning than not," said selectboard chair Bob Norcross. “It’s still going to be a year or two because it has to be on the ballot in November, and then next town meeting it'll become official. So, it'll be another year before they can really enact that, but they will have a 3% surcharge on property values over $100,000 – and they’re also some language in there that low-income housing and moderate-income housing, they won't be exempt, but they will give a lower rate and everything – so, that money will gradually be collected, and we can bank it, so we don't have to spend within a certain year. We can collect it, and when we get up to a certain amount, we could use it to renovate historic buildings or just things like that.”
Town administrator Carl McKinney says there’s a long list of properties Clarksburg could use the money for.
“Most if not all of our buildings are older," he told WAMC. "We have an elementary school that was built in 1954, our town hall was built in 1938. So, we have ADA issues that we're working on. We also have functional obsolescence in some of it, and so obviously, that would be a source of funds to do that without having to entertain debt exclusions and or Proposition 2 and ½ override.”
He says the timing couldn’t be better for the town to embrace the CPA.
“I think it's been an incredibly challenging year with inflation and with the cost of goods and the lack of a ready, willing workforce," said McKinney. "We're on the Vermont border. Six miles to our west is New York. So, we're about as far from Boston as you can get without leaving the state. It's not like we have a grand population of workers to draw from. It continues to be a challenge staffing wise, but I will say that Clarksburg historically runs a pretty lean operation. We don't have a lot of employees, but the ones we do are outstanding. They do a stellar job, and I am proud to work with them.”
Voters also approved a right to farm bylaw that would offer local farmers greater legal protections and encourage farming in Clarksburg.
“Historically, we were a pretty agrarian community right from the get go," McKinney told WAMC. "We were founded in 1798- March 2nd, actually. It kind of embodies the history of the town but also our desire to safeguard those practices. We’re a pollinator friendly community, we are a green community since 2016, and I think this ties very nicely in that. We have a pretty nice laid-back community and several active farms which we would like to see continue- And also, understanding that the state owns over half of our community. We are the smallest land wise community in all of Berkshire County, and 50% of our town is owned by the commonwealth. So, there's not a lot of tax base nor land readily available, and so we don't want the pressures of urbanization to destroy our farms.”
“I do think that it shows a town that we want to stay a rural community, and we want to make sure that the farms that we do have here don't have to worry about people trying to take their land and develop it and give them hard times or whatever,” said Norcross.
The selectboard chair says Clarksburg faces substantial financial challenges with its small population and sleepy economy.
“We don't have a lot of income coming from taxes or anything," he told WAMC. "Like Carl said, we have over 50% of our town is run by the state, owned by the state, and they have what they call PILOT program, Payment In Lieu Of Taxes, which only generates $30,000 a year. So, we are a struggling town as far as finances go. But in the last couple of years, I do feel that we're able to get out of debt. We just ended up paying, we had a $195,000 a year debt we had to finish paying off this last year for renovations to our school and to our roads, and I feel we're getting there. We still have ways to go and we are not a wealthy community, but we're becoming a debt free community which we feel is important.”
Norcross says infrastructure investments are Clarksburg’s more pressing need for the coming year.
“One of the biggest things is our roads are mess," he said. "We have a one lane bridge toward the center of our town where the school is, and infrastructure is definitely a big issue that we're working on. But also, our school goes from three-year-olds up through eighth grade, and the school needs some renovation. So, we're looking to get a new roof for that, and those are probably the two main issues in town right now.”
Among other articles on the town warrant, Clarksburg voters signed off on using free cash reserves to pay for a new $142,000 Department of Public Works truck and $72,000 to reduce the tax rate.
