The Kingston Board of Selectmen spent nearly four hours meeting May 19 and reviewing the June 6 Annual Town Meeting warrant, but the most pointed moment came over the fiscal year 2027 operating budget, when newly voted Chair Kimberley Emberg told the room the town’s finances are structurally broken and warned that without new commercial growth, Kingston could be forced to consider an override.
“I’m going to say it again. I think this is not sustainable,” Emberg said as the board moved the general fund operating budget toward favorable action. “I’ve said this for the last three years. We are out of room, so we either need to figure out new growth somehow or we’re going to be talking about an override.”
Nevertheless, the board recommended the FY27 general fund budget, sending it to voters without dissent. But the surrounding discussion laid bare how thin Kingston’s margins have become. Selectman Carl Pike, a former finance committee member, estimated the town would carry a free cash balance of roughly $750,000 to $800,000 into the fall after town meeting spending. He called that an acceptable cushion and said he would not be comfortable with a balance closer to $250,000, particularly with union contracts coming due in the fall and the town already pressed against its levy limit.
Town Administrator Scott Lambiase offered a measure of cautious optimism, noting that the available revenue could rise once the state finalizes its own budget. The figure Selectmen were working from reflected the House number, he said, while the Senate version came in significantly higher; a final state budget, expected by late July, could ease the squeeze slightly. “We definitely need to have a little buffer in that free cash,” Lambiase said. “I agree 100%.”
Selectmen worked the warrant article by article through enterprise fund budgets for the water, wastewater and renewable energy departments, a slate of Community Preservation Committee projects, zoning bylaw corrections, revolving funds and a string of routine appropriations. Several articles were held for further language review with Town Counsel before the warrant is posted, including two proposed revolving funds tied to opioid settlement money and injured-employee reimbursements, and a tax-title payment agreement that Counsel advised should be structured as a bylaw rather than a standalone vote.
The Community Preservation articles drew the closest votes of the night. The board split 3-2 on a proposed conservation purchase on Maple Street. Town Planner Valerie Massard explained that the parcel is likely intended for housing redevelopment in partnership with the Affordable Housing Trust, though the warrant language framed it around wetland protection and fish passage. The board also voted 3-2 to recommend roughly $387,000 to improve public access to the Hathaway Preserve off Wapping Road, including a parking area, split-rail fence and information kiosk. Less contentious CPC items, including restoration of headstones in the Old Burying Ground and rehabilitation work at the Stephen Drew Heritage House, advanced with little debate.
Earlier in the evening the board adopted Kingston’s 2026-2031 Housing Production Plan, clearing it for submission to the state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities by the June 30 deadline. Jason Desrosier, Senior Housing Planner at the Old Colony Planning Council, told the board Kingston counts 272 units on the state’s subsidized housing inventory, or about 5.2% of its roughly 5,200 year-round units, well below the 10% benchmark. He framed the plan around “missing middle” housing and the needs of a rapidly aging population, emphasizing small-scale, context-sensitive growth rather than dramatic change. Pike used the moment to press a familiar point, urging town boards to hold firm against neighborhood opposition to development. “I just hope that we as town committees can be strong in trying to support housing development in this town,” he said. “I think that’s the only way we’re ever going to get anything built.”
The board also approved the issuance of $1.9 million in general obligation bond anticipation notes, carrying a 3.75% rate and sold to Piper Sandler & Company, to finance the elementary school roof replacement authorized at the October 2025 special town meeting.
The meeting opened with the board’s annual post-election reorganization. Emberg was returned as Chair, Melissa “Missy” Bateman was elected Vice Chair, and Sheila Vaughn was elected Clerk. Vaughn and newly elected member Joseph Cunningham Jr. were welcomed to the board. Vaughn was also added as a second authorized signer of the weekly warrant, and the board voted to move its regular meetings to the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.
The night’s most heated stretch came during a public hearing on the all-alcohol licenses at Indian Pond Country Club, where the board had to decide whether an illegal transfer of the licenses had taken place following the club’s sale. The new property owner and his attorney told the board the licenses remain in the name of the prior holder, who is staying on under an interim management agreement to run the liquor operation until a formal transfer can be approved by both the board and the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.
Resident David Fuller, of Country Club Way, delivered a blistering five-minute statement welcoming the new ownership while excoriating the prior operator over what he described as decades of conflict with the surrounding neighborhood. Fuller questioned why the license holder was absent from the hearing and demanded documentation proving the management arrangement was being honored. Ken Moalli spoke in support of the buyer, urging the board not to put hurdles in front of a sale that he said would benefit the community, and arguing that the confidentiality prior to a private deal of that size was normal business practice.
Town Counsel laid out the board’s options: revoke the licenses, suspend them for a defined or indefinite period, continue the hearing, or take no action. After closing the public hearing, the board voted to take no action on all three licenses covering the grill room, function room and members’ club, accepting assurances that the original licensee retains ownership and day-to-day control until a transfer is formally approved. Counsel cautioned that all liquor-premises obligations remain with the original license holder in the meantime, and that the new owner cannot operate the licensed business himself without board and ABCC approval.
Kingston’s annual town meeting is set for Saturday, June 6, at 9 a.m. at the Kingston Intermediate School; a copy of the warrant is available on the town website.