Mayor and Town Manager present Aberdeen’s $24M FY 2026–27 budget; adoption motion deferred

Aberdeen’s mayor and the town manager on May 26 presented the proposed fiscal year 2026–27 budget, a package the manager described as financially strong and now ready for the board’s formal consideration.

Town Manager said the proposed combined budget would top just over $24 million, up from about $21.5 million last year, and that “there’s nothing really new in the budget” beyond capital spending tied to recent growth and storm repairs. He told the board the general fund is proposed at over $18 million and the water and sewer enterprise budget at about $6 million.

The proposal includes no increase to the property tax rate, which the manager and mayor said remains at 42¢ per $100 of valuation. The manager noted an approximate 8% rise in assessed values this year (from $1,736,000,000 to $1,879,000,000), attributing part of the increase to new commercial development such as hotels.

Employee pay and benefits were a central part of the presentation: the manager summarized a market pay study and said the budget contains increases ranging from a minimum cost-of-living adjustment of about 4% up to targeted adjustments as large as 10% for positions that lag the market. "We try to be competitive in what we offer," the Town Manager said, describing the pay changes as necessary to retain staff.

The town also highlighted recovery and capital work tied to storm damage. The manager recounted the early‑July storm event (Chantal), which damaged park infrastructure and water and sewer lines, and said the town has submitted FEMA requests totaling about $2,000,000 for repairs and cleanup. He reported FEMA awards and reimbursements already received including $88,000 for a Lake Park playground pad, a $410,000 award for replacement of the wooden pedestrian bridge, and a debris‑removal reimbursement of $5,734.

On capital projects, the manager described the new Aberdeen library (about 5,000 square feet) and the conversion of the historic Page Memorial building into the Page Memorial Archives and Library; base renovations are expected to be completed by the end of June with further outfitting to follow. He also said the board approved four fenced pickleball courts at Lake Park at a town cost of roughly $75,000 and that the town received a $125,000 matching grant from the Convention and Visitors Bureau for the auditorium at the old elementary school.

Utility and fee changes in the presentation were modest: no change to base monthly water or sewer base rates was proposed, but volume rates for water and sewer would rise about 3%. Residential garbage collection would increase by $1 (to about $21) to offset higher county tipping fees; the commercial garbage rate was cited as $22.54 in the presentation.

The manager described a cybersecurity upgrade being installed this spring with recurring costs in the neighborhood of $50,000 per year, and outlined public safety equipment and vehicle upgrades including plans to finance a rescue truck (discussed as part of a roughly $608,000 financing package).

Mayor framed the budget in the context of town growth, citing Aberdeen’s population as 10,066 and noting the town’s five‑year growth rate (about 5%) relative to nearby towns. He and the manager both emphasized that rising equipment and project costs are a major driver of the budget’s scale.

Before the meeting recessed to reconfigure technical broadcasting, the mayor called for a motion to accept the FY 2026–27 budget "as is." The transcript records an affirmative vocal response but no formal motion text, no second and no recorded vote in the special‑call portion of the meeting; the vote was deferred to the subsequent regular meeting where the board expected to finalize adoption.