The school situation continues to be a mess. Last year Sheffield rejected the contract that for years had allocated school costs among the five towns. With no contract, the state allocation formula sprang into effect. That resulted in a big decrease in Sheffield's allocation (which is why they rejected the contract, of course) and big increases for Egremont, New Marlborough and Monterey (Alford came out about the same). So last August Egremont voters bit the bullet and authorized an increase of about $120,000 as our increased share of the school budget.

New Marlborough has refused to go along, and their selectboard just voted to sue Sheffield, essentially for breach of contract. My take is that the suit is a loser, but it may put enough pressure on Sheffield that some sort of compromise can be reached.

In the meantime, the Egremont selectboard is getting antsy about why we didn't fight rather than caving in. Since our town counsel has a conflict, the selectboard is seeking approval to hire counsel to assess and watch over the situation. Fair enough so long as the amount isn't great, which it isn't.

But I hope the selectboard doesn't overlook the real problem here: no matter what happens in the school budget mess, Egremont is going to have to pay a lot more in the future as its share of school costs. That, combined with rising fuel and other costs, means we're looking at big tax increases and that we should be looking hard at reducing expenses wherever we can. Now that budget season is upon us, let's hope the selectboard does that and doesn't come up with any new ways to spend our tax money on pet projects of the denizens down at town hall.