HALIFAX — Oct. 13, 2026 — The Halifax Select Board on Tuesday scheduled a Special Town Meeting for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 12, 2027, moving it out of the fall and holiday season to allow time to certify free cash, and opened the warrant through Nov. 5. Members also voted on a $10 trash fee increase and approved a get-out-the-vote booth on town property.
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Chair Thomas Pratt said a fall Special Town Meeting had long been expected, but conversations with Interim Town Administrator Darleen Sullivan and recent Finance Committee discussions pointed to early 2027 instead, avoiding the holiday season. The later date gives the town time to complete certification of free cash, Pratt said.
Members weighed Monday, Jan. 11, against Tuesday, Jan. 12. Pratt favored Tuesday, saying a weekend snowstorm or a Monday school closure would leave little room to recover without a working day beforehand. Jonathan Selig suggested Monday would allow a weekend to set up the school gym; Pratt asked whether youth basketball uses the gym on Sundays, and the board settled on Tuesday. The vote was announced as unanimous.
The posted agenda called for closing the warrant Tuesday, Nov. 3, state election day. After a suggestion to leave it open longer, the board voted unanimously to open the warrant Oct. 13 and close it Thursday, Nov. 5.
Under the trash proposal Pratt read, the annual curbside fee covering weekly trash pickup, biweekly recycling and recycling-center access would rise $10, from $440 to $450, billed $225 in October and $225 in April. An optional additional bin would go from $270 to $280, billed in two $140 installments. Late-payment interest and the $15 demand fee would not change. Pratt said the town’s rate remains well below private collection.
Selig credited the switch away from the bag program with turning around a trash operation that had been losing money and was not sustainable. Pratt then read a motion setting the new rates. It passed unanimously.
The night’s longest debate came over a request from the two co-chairs of the Democratic Town Committee to set up a pop-up tent near the library and school from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, the first day of early voting, as part of what they described as a national nonpartisan get-out-the-vote effort. The organizers promised no campaigning and said they would post early-voting hours and bring a laptop for registration checks.
Members said the organizers’ party roles, not the goal, gave them pause. Selig said the same concern would apply if Republican Party members were making the request. Pratt said nothing prevents the group from holding a standout on property the town does not own, but this request would make town-owned property part of the display.
Asked whether the Republican Town Committee had been invited, the organizers said they had been waiting for the board’s permission. They said the date is tied to the national effort. Pratt asked whether the event could instead move to Oct. 24, giving Republicans more notice.
The board moved approval on town property near the library, on condition that the Select Board’s office give the organizers contact information for local Republican Party officials and notify them by memo. Pratt seconded with the understanding that the approval is a one-time decision and that any similar future effort should bring in the other side earlier. The motion passed 3-0.
I feel better about it, like I said, if there was more people involved at the ground floor, but I do appreciate the effort and the general message behind it.
— Thomas Pratt, Select Board Chair 24:06
