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Highway staff, finance discuss GPS, culverts and maintenance funding in budget workshop
Summary
At a town budget workshop, staff and board members negotiated increases and reallocations in the highway department budget, agreeing informally to raise maintenance funding to $120,000, set cold‑patch at $50,000 and add $5,000 to culvert replacement lines while exploring GPS tracking for plow trucks.
Town finance and highway staff discussed the highway department’s proposed 2026 budget at a workshop that focused on equipment maintenance, winter operations and line‑item reallocations.
The session centered on three near‑term priorities: adding GPS tracking to trucks, replacing large culvert pipes and increasing the maintenance and major‑repairs budget to cover aging winter vehicles. Participants also debated how to use liquid‑calcium and chip‑reimbursement (CHIPS) money to stretch the town’s road program.
Staff and board members agreed informally to raise the maintenance and major repairs request and to set other specific line items. The highway superintendent, Todd (staff member), said culvert work is already over budget: “I’m over that . . . probably $23,000 over right now,” and asked for an increase to address several large culverts identified in a recent report from an outside presenter. Workshop participants agreed to increase the culvert replacement code from $10,000 to $15,000 and to split that $15,000 across a repair line and a replacement line (about $7,500 each) to match accounting codes.
On vehicle maintenance, highway staff requested $140,000 for…
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