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Recreation director seeks full-time assistant, camera upgrades in 2026 budget
Summary
Recreation Director Ashley Crosby presented the 2026 budget, proposing to convert a 30‑hour assistant position to full time, add maintenance and IT funding for cameras and subscriptions, and raise camp wages; board asked for more justification and asked staff to meet with the town administrator before December.
Recreation Director Ashley Crosby presented the department’s 2026 budget, highlighting a proposed change that would convert a part-time assistant position (about 30 hours weekly) to a full‑time role and an increase in IT and program costs to support cameras, subscriptions and programming.
Crosby said the assistant’s current 30‑hour schedule requires significant oversight and that moving the position to full time would better match workload. The change would raise the position’s budget from roughly $34,000 to $46,000 — an increase Crosby described as the single largest personnel change in the proposed recreation budget.
She also described a modest increase in the department’s IT-support line to reflect higher contract costs and to move an existing camera subscription at Brown Memorial Field into the recreation budget. Crosby proposed two additional cameras for Richardson Park and noted that some subscriptions (eg., MyRec) were increasing.
Board members sought more detailed justification for the full-time position and asked Crosby to meet with the town administrator and provide a clearer breakdown of the proposed wage increases before returning in December. Selectmen also discussed camp staffing: Crosby said camp wages are budgeted in the department’s revolving fund and are expected to be offset by registration fees; the board asked for a clearer mapping between wage increases and expected camp revenue.
The board did not take a vote on the recreation budget; members directed Crosby to provide further documentation on program outcomes, conference and professional‑development benefits, and the operational case for a second full-time staffer before final adoption.
