WINCHENDON — At their annual Town Meeting on Monday, voters in Winchendon voted overwhelmingly to support a $1.9 million Proposition 2½ override. The margin, 61% to 39%, was a bit of a surprise given that the override passed at the May 5 town election by a mere 12 votes out 1,780 cast. A total of 815 registered voters showed up for the Town Meeting.

Supporters of the override argued its failure would result in the closure of Beals Memorial Library and the Senior Center at Old Murdock, as well as cuts in town cultural and recreational programs, staff in the Winchendon Public School system, and personnel in the town’s fire, police, and public works departments. Opponents said it would place a further burden on already struggling taxpayers.

Ultimately, Town Meeting voters approved a FY26 town operating budget of nearly $19.3 million, which included the amount of the override. Town manager Bill McKinney explained that that amount, which exceeds the current FY25 budget by some $1.5 million, would only provide level services and staffing for the town. He cited increases in town employee health insurance, retirement costs, other post-employment benefit (OPEB) expenses, liability insurance, and other fixed expenses as being responsible for much of the increase.

McKinney told the Athol Daily News he was somewhat surprised by the margin by which the override passed Monday night.

“Going into the meeting, I had no idea which way it was going to go,” he said. “The vote at the town election was very close, so I assumed it would be close (Monday) as well. It was great to see over 800 voters showing up. It shows that people are very passionate about the town.”

Asked if he was relieved by the results, McKinney said, “Yes. It was a long night, but it was well worth it. Everyone is excited about the town moving forward.”

The town manager cautioned that passage of the override doesn’t mean it will be smooth sailing for the town budget in the years ahead.

“It helps,” he said. “But as mentioned last night, this year’s budget was out of balance by $700,000 and we had to use one-time revenue to cover it.

So, the fact we don’t have to use that much one-time revenue for FY26 helps. It’s still going to be a challenge going into next year because we don’t know what the state’s going to give us, we don’t know how much health insurance is going to go up — we can guess that it’s going to be just as bad. We know pensions will be up significantly. We know school transportation will be up 6%. So, just like going into [fiscal year 2026] any expense that goes up more than 2.5 percent squeezes something else out. Obviously we’ll be planning for it, but we won’t know a lot of those costs until January. But this (override) does help.”

Several articles that were dependent on money from the town’s free cash account were passed over, McKinney told voters, because the amount of free cash available has not yet been certified by the state, in part because the town is still endeavoring to close its books for the year.

“We’re still working to close and actually submit our figures,” he said. Part of the reason for the delay in closing the books, he said, was due to significant turnover in the town’s financial team.

“The town accountant will be transitioning to become town treasurer,” he said. “A lot of municipal positions are very hard to fill. So, once the books are closed we can submit them to the state for certification of free cash.”