KINGSTON — September 8, 2026 — Town Administrator Scott Lambiase told the Board of Selectmen that department budgets are open for fiscal 2028 with instructions to hold at level service — and that even level service may require a discussion of a Proposition 2½ override. The board also opened the October 27 special town meeting warrant, and set both 2027 town meeting dates for Saturdays in May.
The Full Story
Lambiase gave the board no figures, and was explicit that it is early. Departments are submitting through the town’s accounting system, MUNIS, and the direction to department heads will be level service — what it costs to keep things where they are — and several departments are expected to ask for more than that, which will come to the board and the Finance Committee for decisions.
“It’s still too early to say, obviously, if we are looking for things beyond, you know, level service,” he said, “and even level service may necessitate a discussion on a two-and-a-half override.”
He had met earlier that day with the Finance Committee and Capital Committee chairs. The Joint Budget Advisory Group meets September 30 at 6 p.m. Articles for the October 27 special town meeting are due from departments by September 18 so the board can vote the warrant on September 22, and the warrant was opened that night with a September 22 closing date. Chair Kimberley Emberg told viewers the meeting needs at least 100 residents for a quorum.
Two other spending pressures surfaced in the same report. Urgent electrical repairs are needed at two pump stations after intermittent failures turned up in routine testing; the town has a waiver from DCAM and may bring a Water Department article to the special town meeting to fund the work. And the elementary school roofing project has fallen behind, with the town notifying the contractor it will levy liquidated damages if the schedule is not recovered.
The night’s longest argument was over two parking signs. The Police Department, working with Highway Superintendent Shawn Turner, asked the board to post no-parking signs on Tremont Street and Center Street. The board approved Tremont Street and took no action on Center Street.
Tremont Street drew little resistance — a stretch from the Dillingham corner that narrows to barely one lane, with a nearby apartment building and recurring winter complaints. Center Street was different. The request grew out of parking generated by a weekly Monday evening gathering at a church on the street, and the residents who came to speak did not want the signs.
“This parking issue is like taking a sledgehammer to a pistachio.” — Susan Sherman, Main Street
Sherman said the problem had largely resolved itself through neighbors talking to the group’s organizers, that the street has been fine since, and that she had not been consulted before the item reached the agenda. She apologized on the record to Vice Chair Melissa Bateman for the tone of an earlier email, while criticizing how Police Lieutenant John Bateman had proceeded.
