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Tamworth Select Board narrows 2025 budget proposals, agrees to use capital reserve for Depot Road bridge and awards fire tower contract
Summary
In a multi-hour budget workshop the Select Board reviewed unassigned fund balance scenarios, agreed in principle to use capital reserves for the Depot Road bridge repair, approved funding adjustments for equipment and policing contingencies, and voted to award a fire tower engineering assessment contract (contract amount recorded in signature file).
The Tamworth Select Board spent an extended agenda segment reviewing the town’s unassigned fund balance and capital improvement priorities for 2025. Town budget staff outlined options for using the audit-year balance (staff referenced an opening unassigned balance figure of about $2.5 million and an estimated adjusted beginning balance near $2.2 million after previously approved actions) and presented scenarios that would fund bridge repairs, vehicle reserves and transfer-station equipment.
Board members discussed the Depot Road bridge repair (estimated at $350,000) and reached consensus to use available capital reserve funds for that project rather than drawing heavily on flexible unassigned fund balance. The presenter also outlined alternatives for funding a planned fire truck and recommended building capital reserves on a multiyear schedule.
On equipment needs at the transfer station, board members agreed to prioritize purchasing a compactor this year and to delay a backhoe purchase for one year in some scenarios; members discussed using an expendable trust to smooth recurring police hiring costs and approved placing a partial expendable-trust funding amount in the draft plan.
The board also moved to accept a bid for a fire tower engineering assessment. "I make motion we accept the HEB bid and award the contract for the fire tower engineering assessment to HUB in the amount of $5,400," an official moved; the board recorded affirmative votes and approved the contract award. The board then approved accounts payable totaling $714,381.14, with roll-call-style votes recorded for the packet of payments including bridge repair, ambulance charges, the HEB engineering invoice and a school payment.
The budget presentation closed with the Select Board setting a draft budget that used roughly $300,000 of unassigned fund balance under the scenarios discussed and scheduling follow-up meetings with outside agencies and department heads for January and February petition deadlines.
What's next: Board staff will circulate updated budget numbers by email and continue department-level budget hearings; several decisions (final vehicle purchase schedules and expendable-trust language) will be finalized in subsequent meetings and at the public hearing(s) required before adoption.
