Ware Select Board amends bucket truck article, advances 30-plus warrant articles for June town meeting

Select Board · Meeting of May 20, 2026

Ware Select Board advances 30-plus town meeting warrant articles and hears Bay State Health announce a new West Street care center. Meeting jointly with the Finance Committee and Town Moderator on May 19, the board recommended the roughly $40.6 million annual operating budget for the June 8 town meeting, a figure that for the first time in thirteen years draws approximately $640,000 in free cash for day-to-day operations, a threshold Town Manager Stuart called a structural warning sign. Bay State Health Senior Vice President Michael Knapik confirmed that the organization has leased the former Smithland Pet and Garden Center at 114 West Street for the Bay State Mary Lane Convenient Care Center, with a nine-to-twelve-month build-out timeline and seven-day-a-week hours planned; he also outlined Bay State's bid for federal rural health transformation dollars to bring a family medicine residency program to Ware.

The board amended a $235,000 bucket truck replacement to a no-more-than-$50,000 boom repair, voted to recommend dismissal of a $175,000 pool demolition article, and approved a $3.95 million bond anticipation note sale to D.A. Davidson and Company at 4.125 percent with a $22,436 premium.

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Source: the Select Board meeting of May 20, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.