All agenda items pass at Rochester Town Meeting
May 13, 2024
Rochester Finance Committee chair Kris Stoltenberg receives a round of applause after Town Moderator Dave Arancio announced he would be stepping down after working for the town for 39 years. Photos by Brendan Cassidy
The Rochester community passed every item that was brought to a vote at Town Meeting on Monday, May 13.
Town Moderator Dave Arancio leads the way at Town Meeting.
ROCHESTER — The Rochester community was in harmony at the annual Town Meeting on Monday, May 13, with each article passing with a majority vote.
Voters approved the town’s $26 million Fiscal Year 2025 budget, a number of amendments to zoning bylaws and the funding of capital plans, which included a Rochester Memorial School HVAC system, a utility terrain vehicle for the fire department and a new financial software package.
Rochester’s operating budget was approved to be $26,022,613, a 3.7% increase from last year’s operating budget of $25,075,810.
Finance Committee chair Kris Stoltenberg described finalizing the 2025 budget as a challenge.
“When we collected and reviewed all of the town department budgets and school budget requests, we were significantly out of balance,” said Stoltenberg. “This required additional cuts and adjustments to the town budget and equal cuts and adjustments to the school budget.”
Agenda Item 14, which would have approved Rochester’s share of a $12 million debt authorized by the Old Rochester Regional School District to pay costs of capital improvement upgrades, was passed over after the Old Rochester School Committee voted to withdraw the item on April 30.
The meeting also marked the end of Glenn Cannon’s tenure as Rochester Town Administrator, after he announced his resignation to become Carver Town Administrator on April 29.
Town Moderator David Arancio also announced at the meeting that 2024 would be Stoltenberg’s last year on the Finance Committee. Stoltenberg served the town of Rochester for 39 years, according to Arancio.
