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Board of Finance advances $89.95M town budget to public hearing, agrees to use $2M of fund balance
Summary
The board voted to send a proposed town budget of $89,952,714 to public hearing and agreed to include a $2 million undesignated fund balance allocation to lower the mill rate projection; members also reviewed CIP items including electric vans (partially funded by an efficiency rebate) and a $2.3 million estimate for turf and track replacement.
The Stonington Board of Finance voted to send a proposed town budget of $89,952,714 to public hearing and agreed to include $2,000,000 of undesignated fund balance in the package, which the finance director said would lower the advertised mill rate projection.
The finance director presented consolidated numbers for general government ($31,701,818), education ($47,957,147) and debt service ($7,122,875), producing a total $89,952,714. With a $2 million draw on undesignated fund balance, staff calculated a mill rate of 19.29 (a 1.11% nominal increase over the prior year in their projection).
On the capital side, facilities staff described leveraging recent energy‑efficiency work to buy electric maintenance vans. Steve (facilities) said the district received an Eversource check for $26,087 from efficiency projects and proposed applying that money toward one electric van and a modest charging outlet installation; he said with district contributions he could acquire two used electric vans for roughly $65,000 total rather than two new vehicles.
Facilities also presented vendor estimates for a full athletic complex replacement (field turf, track, fencing and related work) with a total project estimate in the neighborhood of $2.3 million. Board members discussed staging and timing; staff recommended spreading large projects across fiscals or coordinating the work with other capital schedules.
Board members also examined building‑system priorities (boiler and water‑heater replacements) and the timing risk of delaying those items. Facilities noted the water‑heater replacement could be urgent if it failed and that larger boiler replacement work is scheduled across multiple fiscal years to allow planning and sizing decisions.
The board approved a motion to forward the town budget to public hearing with the proposed fund‑balance allocation. The public hearing will provide an opportunity for additional community comment before final votes and any adjustments at deliberations.
