Town meeting backs budgets pending override vote

Town Meeting · Meeting of May 13, 2026

Templeton's annual town meeting approved a $12,427,729 municipal budget and a $10,052,160 regional school assessment Tuesday, both contingent on a May 18 property tax override vote. Select Board Chair Jeff Bennett said the board "spent more time on the budget this year than any board" since 2011, cutting two police officers and two highway positions in the no-override scenario. Narragansett Regional School Committee Chair Jennifer Smith warned a rejected $9,006,981 amendment "takes away athletics, takes away MVP, takes away the Thrive Program." TCTV Director Steve Castle's bid for an extra $50,000, calling the station's $110,000 budget "completely inadequate," failed.

Parks and Recreation Chair Ken McClure's push to raise his budget from $5,875 to $47,875 also failed. Voters approved a one-year data center moratorium but rejected a battery storage moratorium, which needed a two-thirds vote. Malfunctioning voting clickers left roughly 100 votes unrecorded.

In the full story:

• The Full Story
• Why It Matters
• Key Motions & Votes
• Source
• Templeton's community access TV: Town Meeting meeting, May 13, 2026
• The complete report: 1,029 words

Source: the Town Meeting meeting of May 13, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.