NEW SALEM — With a comfortable stash of free cash on hand, residents at Monday’s Annual Town Meeting approved appropriations of $220,000 and $126,300 to buy a new Highway Department truck and to pay off the library’s construction loan, respectively.

Finance Committee Chair Gabriele Voelker said New Salem “has been in a very good position the last few years” due to the influx of federal money during the pandemic and using free cash avoids raising the town’s tax rate. She also emphasized coming years will likely see more capital projects and building maintenance requests due to the age of town buildings.

Paying off the library’s construction loan, she continued, will save the town $56,000 over the projected lifetime of the loan and that money is better spent on town properties.

“We’ve really worked hard to build up and save to get to the point to where we can pay cash for things,” Voelker said, adding that she has wanted to pay off the loan “for a long time.”

The Highway Department truck will be a multi-purpose Ford F-750 that will replace the department’s current 22-year-old vehicle, which has a rusty body and can only function as a sander truck.

Highway Superintendent Aaron Thibeault said the new vehicle would have a stainless steel body and it could serve as a sander, a plow truck and can haul materials. He characterized it as a “real help to the department.”

After these two larger purchases, as well as a few others, Voelker said the town will have $831,000 left in its free cash reserves, which is a “real comfortable number.”

The majority of the meeting moved along at a blazing pace, as residents worked through 37 articles in just over an hour.

“I am well aware the Celtics are on at 8:30,” joked Town Moderator Cam Dunbar as he called the meeting to order just after 7 p.m. Ahead of the final article he observed the meeting was “one of the most efficient I’ve ever run or been to.”

Other articles approved include a $3.37 million operating budget for fiscal year 2025, which is just a 0.6% increase over this year’s budget.

Residents also approved appropriations of $12,750 for a fire alarm system at the Fire Station, $14,000 for a phone system at Swift River School, $50,000 for new doors at Swift River School, $11,250 to replace the library’s propane heater (but only if the town doesn’t receive a grant and the other two units fail) and $69,900 for a loan payment on a fire engine that voters approved last year.

Voters also transferred $50,000 to the Vehicle Replacement Stabilization and Stabilization funds.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.