Cohasset Select Board Advances Special Town Meeting Warrant, Hears Resident Budget Anger

COHASSET — September 30, 2025 — Cohasset Select Board advances a packed special town meeting warrant amid resident anger over spending and kindergarten fees. The board voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend ten warrant articles — including the Joseph Osgood Elementary School roof project at a maximum projected cost of approximately $5.8 million with state reimbursement at 32.47 percent, an OPEB trust fund transfer of roughly $430,000, and acceptance of a state law allowing wine and malt licensees to convert to all-alcohol licenses — while deferring action on the proposed public safety building and a recycling transfer facility enterprise fund pending Advisory Committee review. Resident Will Ashton, of 125 Doane Street, presented a 13-tab budget analysis supporting his citizens' petition for $300,000 in annual tuition-free full-day kindergarten funding, arguing Cohasset outspends peer towns on administration and IT by two to four times while ranking in the bottom half on per-student education spending. The board also received a briefing on a revised $4.2 million phased renovation of the Elm Street fire station — down from an initial $7.7 million estimate — with Fire Chief Jake Dockery telling the board the building lacks proper decontamination space, a deficiency he called a direct cancer risk for firefighters. A special local election is tentatively set for November 15, 2025, at the Deer Hill School gymnasium.