Pembroke Town Meeting Approves $75 Million Budget, Defeats Food Pantry Relocation Bid

PEMBROKE — May 14, 2024 — Pembroke Town Meeting passed a $75.4 million operating budget and rejected a bid to give the Firehouse Food Pantry the right of first refusal on the vacating Council on Aging building at 144 Center Street. The May 14 annual meeting, attended by 217 registered voters, approved the fiscal year 2025 operating budget of $75,361,337 unanimously, funded primarily through $72,229,264 in taxation and supplemented by enterprise fund transfers and $750,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Advisory Committee Chairperson Linda Peterson presented the budget; major line items include $38,580,000 for schools, $10,099,936 for health insurance, and $4,403,587 for police personal services. Town meeting also unanimously approved a $9,650,500 capital program including $8,115,000 in water system borrowing, established the rank of lieutenant paramedic in the fire department with a $15,427.84 transfer from the ambulance fund, and approved four Community Preservation Committee grants totaling $249,000 for a fitness court, historic preservation, and church roof repairs. Pantry founder Peg Struzik warned that the food pantry "will close after its Thanksgiving dinner" without a new home, but the right-of-first-refusal petition was voted down after former Select Board member Bob DiMarzo argued the $1.1 million building faced competing uses and that up to $300,000 in Plymouth County renovation funding for the firehouse remained available through September.