Dartmouth Select Board Signs Town Meeting Warrants, Backs $113 Million Budget

DARTMOUTH -- May 11, 2026, Dartmouth Select Board approves $113 million budget warrant and revives police station study panel. The board voted unanimously Monday to recommend 25 of 28 articles on the spring Annual Town Meeting warrant, with the full $113,389,515 FY2027 operating budget among them, and also signed both the Annual and Special Town Meeting warrants ahead of the June 2 session at Dartmouth High School. The three citizen petitions not recommended were found legally defective, including two that sought to establish a Former Police Station Reuse Committee; the board nonetheless voted to revive that committee under its own authority, with advertising for five citizen seats to begin after Town Meeting. Community Preservation Committee Chair Buddy Baker-Smith presented a seven-article CPA package totaling roughly $3.6 million, described as the largest single-year CPA commitment in the committee's history, including $853,300 for the Dartmouth Cultural Center and a new $1.5 million Agricultural Preservation Fund. A resident, Doug Balder of Rock O'Dundee Road, urged removal of the $575,000 Davol Field conservation restriction article, citing a lack of community engagement by the Buzzards Bay Coalition and a recent denial from the Russells Mills Historic District Commission; Baker-Smith declined, saying Town Meeting is the appropriate decision-making body.