Staff member outlines 2025 budget adjustments, flags rising electricity and insurance costs; adoption set for Sept. 24

A staff member who presented the draft 2025 budget told attendees that unexpectedly high utility bills and a pending insurance change had prompted conservative increases in multiple lines and that the governing body (not specified in the transcript) will take up final adoption at a Sept. 24 meeting.

"I don't know that I appropriated enough money for electricity," the staff member said, adding that recent bills had been "astronomical." The presenter said they had consulted Robert, who advised that changing the budget tonight would require postponing the hearing; the presenter said the alternatives were either an additional appropriation later or transferring funds from another appropriation.

On personnel costs, the presenter said the draft includes a 3% wage increase "like what Sandy requested" and a 35% increase for health insurance, explaining that the current insurer will leave after the first of the year and new pricing was not available until October. "I also increased insurance by 35% and left the HSAs the way they are because I have no idea what that's going to look like," the staff member said.

The presenter outlined several capital and operating adjustments: the town is considering replacing an unusable tractor with a smaller "mini," to be paid from water, sewer and storm-water funds; a previously appropriated fence project has been pushed into 2026; and a modest allowance was included for a possible 20-foot building extension following a question from Randy.

The presenter also said they had budgeted for an upgrade to the municipal billing software. Describing the vendor arrangement, the presenter said the town is looking to move to a BSNA version of Keystone that would allow account holders to view and pay bills online, but that a vendor quote was still pending and the proposed payment option would be a credit-card-based system that is not yet tied into the utility system.

A speaker said they would file a resolution to reduce the 2025 budget by removing a $200,000 MBH restricted appropriation from this year and moving it to next year; that same proposal would add $300,000 for paving in the next budget year, cut park spending by $9,000 and reduce the street department's fence allocation by $20,000. The transcript records the proposal being made and explained but does not record a vote on that resolution.

Because the presenter had already submitted form three, they said the draft could not be altered this evening without postponing the hearing. "We'll either do an additional appropriation because we'll have money there that we can play with or we'll transfer it from another appropriation," the presenter said, describing the remedies available if higher bills materialize.

The meeting record notes that the adoption meeting will be Sept. 24 at 5:45 p.m.; attendees were told that that meeting will be the last opportunity to ask questions before adoption. The budget meeting adjourned and the body prepared to begin the next scheduled meeting.

Note: the transcript supplied does not identify the governing body's formal name, the date of the meeting, or individual speaker names. All speaker attributions in this article use functional labels assigned from the meeting text (for example, "the staff member"), reflecting how participants spoke during the session.