Dighton draft warrant for Nov. 9 town meeting would use $1.19 million in free cash, including bridge design
The draft would use $1.19 million of the town's $1.92 million in free cash. Savings accounts would get $692,370 and the Pleasant Street Bridge $175,000. The ambulance fund would pay for cardiac monitors and an ambulance lease. The final warrant is due Oct. 22.
Updated Oct. 18 with more detail.
DIGHTON Dighton voters will be asked Nov. 9 to spend about $1.19 million of the town's free cash, most of it on savings accounts, public safety equipment and the next phase of the Pleasant Street Bridge replacement, according to a draft warrant in the Board of Selectmen's Oct. 14 meeting packet. The Special Town Meeting is Monday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School auditorium. The town says the final warrant will be posted Oct. 22.
The draft carries a DRAFT watermark, and the selectmen's agenda that night listed items to add one article, remove another and close the warrant. We found no posted minutes from the Oct. 14 meeting, so the final version may differ.
What it costs
A summary sheet in the packet lists $1,923,714 in available free cash. The draft articles would use $1,185,798.10 of it, leaving $737,915.90. Our own sum of every free cash line on the sheet, including prior-year bills and the free cash shares of two dispatch articles, matches that total. Among the free cash items:
- $596,185 to the Capital Stabilization Account (Article 7), which the sheet says would raise that balance from $526,804.08 to $1,122,989.08.
- $96,185 to the general Stabilization Account (Article 8), raising it from $2,388,944.80 to $2,485,129.80.
- $50,000 to the trust fund for retirees' health and life insurance (Article 9).
- $175,000 for design and construction-phase engineering on the Pleasant Street Bridge (Article 14).
- $73,000 to engineer and move public safety antennas on the Elm Street water tank (Article 19).
- $66,703 for a police administrative vehicle (Article 15).
- $76,000 for a fire prevention vehicle (Article 13), with $35,370 from free cash and $40,630 from an insurance fund.
- $20,000 for the Stormwater Committee's federal discharge permit work (Article 18).
The town's ambulance fund, not free cash, would cover $145,533.06 for the third and final lease payment on an ambulance, $138,000 for two cardiac monitors and $9,200 for three IV pumps. It would also pay one third of two dispatch articles, with free cash covering the other two thirds. One is the $44,598.85 Rapid SOS article, for software the warrant says would "replace current antiquated software that is unable to be upgraded." The other is the $54,237.41 Zetron article, for dispatch software and equipment "currently used by Police, Fire, Highway and all mutual aid departments which is no longer supported." The sheet lists $325,678.48 drawn from the ambulance fund in all.
Other articles would pay $14,944.49 in prior-year bills, add $137,915 to department budgets for fiscal 2027, and move $89,152.95 left from a 2020 library renovation vote to repairs at 207 Main St. Another would accept a state law that lets the town treat its uncashed checks as abandoned after a year. Two would amend the stormwater and false alarm bylaws.
How we got here
The town has worked toward replacing the Pleasant Street Bridge over the Muddy Cove Inlet since 2018. In a December 2022 announcement on the town's news portal, Dighton said the bridge "is more than 100 years old, is weight posted for less than half the legal statutory weight load and has outlived its projected service life." The same release said voters approved $33,750 for an alternatives study in June 2018, $150,000 for early design in November 2021 and $267,800 for final design and permitting in November 2022. Congress added $2.75 million in federal funding that December toward a project the town then estimated at about $3.3 million.
What happens next
Voters at the Nov. 9 meeting decide each article. Before then, Dighton's Local Hazard Mitigation Planning Team holds a community workshop Monday, Nov. 2, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Old Town Hall, 1111 Somerset Ave. The 2022 release said the bridge was listed as a coastal flooding concern in the town's hazard plan. A flyer in the packet lists Fire Chief Christopher Maguy, cmaguy@dighton-ma.gov, as a contact.
How to weigh in
The selectmen take written input at boardofselectmen@dighton-ma.gov, their agenda says, and replay meetings on Dighton Channel 95 and on YouTube. Town Hall is at 979 Somerset Ave., 508-669-6431.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
How we verified this
Every fact comes from the Board of Selectmen's Oct. 14 agenda packet, which we read in full, two town News Flash notices and the town's December 2022 bridge announcement, listed below. We read them on Oct. 18. The packet is a scanned document; we checked each dollar figure against the page images, recomputed the free cash, ambulance fund and stabilization totals, and all match the town's summary sheet. The warrant is a draft and the town says the final will be posted Oct. 22; we will recheck this story against it. We left out names of private residents in the packet. We checked each date and weekday against a calendar. South Coast 360 sought comment Sunday from the Board of Selectmen office; no reply yet.
Corrections
No corrections to this story. If something here is wrong, tell us. Every correction is dated on the story and listed in our public log.
Sources (4)
- Board of Selectmen Regular Meeting Agenda Packet, Oct. 14, 2026 (posted Oct. 13, 4:41 p.m., 56 pages)Town of Dighton. Read in full: the agenda (pages 1 to 3), the free cash and fund summary sheets (pages 19 and 20), the draft Special Town Meeting warrant (pages 21 to 43), the hazard mitigation flyer (page 15) and the selectmen's Oct. 14 letter on Town Hall letterhead (page 17). Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- News Flash: SPECIAL TOWN MEETING (posted Oct. 7, 2026)Town of Dighton. The meeting date, time and place, and the Oct. 22 posting date for the final warrant. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- News Flash: DIGHTON HAZARD MITIGATION PLANNING (posted Oct. 8, 2026)Town of Dighton. The Nov. 2 workshop at Old Town Hall and what it covers. Read Oct. 18, 2026.
- Town of Dighton to Receive $2.75 million in Federal Funding to Replace Pleasant Street Bridge (Dighton News Portal, Dec. 29, 2022)Town of Dighton announcement on its news portal. The bridge condition, the 2018, 2021 and 2022 town meeting votes, the $2.75 million federal award, the $3.3 million estimate and the hazard plan listing. Read Oct. 18, 2026.