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.