Pembroke Town Meeting Passes $78.8 Million Budget, Defeats Plastic Bag Repeal

PEMBROKE — May 13, 2025 — Pembroke's Annual Town Meeting passed a $78,805,048 fiscal year 2026 operating budget and cleared all articles on the warrant in a single night, with 309 voters attending. The session's sharpest fights came on citizen and select board petition articles: a motion by Select Board member Rich Flynn to repeal the town's 2019 single-use plastic bag ban was defeated after Recycling and Sustainability Committee volunteer Nicole Lydic reported the town's recycling contamination rate sits at 13 percent — above the 10 percent goal — and warned repeal would raise trash bills; and a petition by resident Maureen Jayce to end water fluoridation was also voted down after Town Counsel Carolyn Murray of KP Law told the meeting the vote could only be non-binding, because state law vests fluoridation decisions with the Board of Health. The planning board's Article 22, which would have extended the Business B district setback on Route 53 from 450 to 800 feet, failed to reach the required two-thirds threshold after neighbors on Barker Street and Washington Street raised concerns about spot zoning. The meeting also approved a $16,479,398 capital plan including $14,615,000 in authorized borrowing, and Town Manager Bill Chouinard reported that bidding on the new public safety headquarters and substation is underway, with comparable regional projects coming in millions of dollars under estimate.