ADAMS, Mass. — The Board of Selectmen has begun a deep review of the fiscal 2026 budget of $19,548,441, up $717,916, or 3.7 percent over this year.

 

The annual budget workshops started with a preliminary review and presentation of the budget books last week and continued on Tuesday with the Executive, Finance and Technology and General Government sections. 

 

That included the elected town clerk, assessor and treasurer/collector who all asked for a 5 percent raise to start bringing their salaries closer to other department heads and citing increased responsibilities and workloads in their offices.

 

Each began with reading a statement that they had emailed interim Town Administrator Kenneth Walto, Chair John Duval and Finance Director Ashley Satko on Feb. 27 requesting the raises that would amount to $7,000 total in the budget.

 

"This 5 percent increase would help to align these three positions with the salaries of the other department heads throughout the town of Adams. The average of these other department positions is approximately $89,000," said Assessor Paula Grover. "It would bring our salaries to $81,933, which is still well below the average salary."

 

Town Clerk Haley Meczywor said, "this disparity raises questions about fairness and equally, the allocation of resources." 

 

Treasurer Kelly F. Rice noted that raises of between 4 and 10 percent had been given to other departments and positions, above the regular 2 percent cost of living.