Essex Town Meeting Approves $650,000 Tanker Truck and Sweeping Zoning Overhaul

ESSEX — November 17, 2025 — Essex fall Town Meeting approves 27 of 28 articles, including $650,000 fire tanker and $1 million OPEB transfer. The November 17 meeting, called to order at 6:51 p.m. with a quorum present, saw Planning Board member Lisa O'Donnell walk voters through nine zoning bylaw amendments in under an hour, including an MBTA 3A compliance update raising the downtown district's by-right multifamily unit limit from four to six and a new prohibition on condoizing accessory dwelling units. Finance Committee member Ben Buttrick presented the evening's most debated item — a $1 million transfer to the town's Other Post-Employment Benefits trust fund, roughly four times the historical annual contribution — arguing it would free up $300,000 annually in operating funds once the fund reaches its $5 million actuarial target; resident Brian Grosser (30 Choate Street) called it "too much given short-term liabilities" but the Finance Committee's unanimous recommendation carried the floor. A $90,000 local match for a FEMA-funded Metal Shark 23-foot harbormaster vessel passed after the police chief detailed a $154,145 refit estimate for the failing 2000-era Parker. Article 12, which would have replaced the Town Moderator as sole nominating authority for Finance Committee vacancies, was indefinitely postponed after Grosser raised a procedural objection that the warrant referenced a bylaw text superseded by an Attorney General approval on September 2, 2025.