Between a slide-in water tank, fire extrication equipment, a packer truck, a waste oil burner and a multifunction printer, equipment purchases dominate Canterbury’s town warrant this year.
Residents will gather to challenge, dispute and reach consensus on over 15 warrant articles Friday evening. Voters have already settled part of the town warrant at the first session of town meeting on Tuesday, resulting in John T. Goegel becoming the cemetery trustee and Debbie Snow and Florence Woods earning the two library trustee positions. They also weighed in on zoning articles that included a proposed ban on data centers.
Canterbury’s warrant asks voters to approve several vehicle and equipment upgrades earmarked for the town’s Highway and Fire departments. The article with the largest tax impact, operating budget notwithstanding, requests $170,000 to purchase a packer truck for the Transfer Station and retrofit it with electric hydraulics.
The measure, Article 15, would carry a tax impact of $0.41 per $1,000 of property value, or $165.41 for the average $400,000 home.
Some warrant articles would have no tax impact: The town is seeking voters’ permission to establish or modify a variety of funds, including creating two public safety detail revolving funds, one for each the police and fire departments. The first dollars to land in those funds, $5,000 for police and $2,000 for fire, would come from the town’s unassigned fund balance rather than being raised through taxation.
Voters will also evaluate whether to create a capital reserve fund to work toward purchasing a salt shed; to accept and deposit $6,000 from the town’s Community Power Coalition into the Renewable Energy Capital Reserve Fund; and to close the Sam Lake
House Capital Reserve Fund.
The $3.6 million proposed budget represents a 3.4% increase over last year’s appropriations, a sum that accounts for increases in health insurance, recycling, outside auditing and legal fees.
If all warrant articles pass, including the proposed operating budget, they will have a tax impact of $5.92 per $1,000 of property value, or $2,368.86 for the average $400,000 home.
Warrant articles for both sessions of town meeting, their full text and tax impact, as well as an itemized breakdown of the town budget, can be found at https://www.canterburynh.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/2025-Canterbury-Town-Report.pdf.
Town meeting will take place at the Canterbury Elementary School at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 13. Ballot voting took place at Canterbury Town Hall from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10.