Farmington selectmen review FY2026 budget draft, debate roads funding, staffing and legal costs

Interim Town Administrator Paul Sanderson and Finance Administrator Kelly Heon presented a draft FY2026 operating budget at the Farmington Selectmen’s Jan. 5 meeting that would approach a 10% increase over the prior year’s approved operating budget. The meeting devolved into a detailed line-by-line review across departments and a discussion of several possible warrant-article proposals.

Sanderson said the draft was intentionally high in some consultant and contingency lines to reflect expected costs for engineering on levee repairs, water testing at the transfer station, and other one-time needs. He also outlined how a recently awarded Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) grant will require a specific warrant-article appropriation of $100,000 for a sewer-plant capacity evaluation; Sanderson said the principal is likely to be forgiven but the appropriation is required to accept the grant.

Vice Chair Charlie King led a sustained discussion about highway funding. King argued that the board should budget a $500,000 Rebuild/Repave/Repair Roads appropriation in the operating warrant rather than rely solely on future warrant-article requests. "This is our responsibility," King said, pressing for a line item that funds major road work in 2026. Board consensus during the meeting was to restore the $500,000 highway appropriation; staff will present updated totals at the next meeting.

Personnel and staffing were debated at length. The draft includes proposed changes in the Town Clerk/Tax Collector office and an adjusted selectmen’s secretary allocation (a proposal to make the Selectmen’s secretary full time with benefits). Finance staffing was also discussed: Heon said recruiting for a Finance Administrator yielded no viable candidates, and she and others recommended posting for a Finance Assistant instead and having Municipal Resources Inc. (MRI) help with interim cover. The board asked staff to bring refined payroll and benefit figures to the next meeting.

Legal services drove another heated exchange. King urged the board to rely more on in-house review and NHMA guidance for routine issues to curb hourly legal fees, while other members noted that unexpected, high-stakes matters often require external counsel. The board settled on a compromise planning figure of $100,000 for legal services in 2026 as a budgeting target.

Other decisions and directions made during the meeting included:

- Approval to apply for an Overwatch cybersecurity grant to support municipal and water-system cybersecurity upgrades (motion passed). - Approval of the Planning circuit-rider contract to maintain planning services for complex projects (motion passed unanimously by those present). - The board approved placing a warrant article to raise the total disabled-veteran credit to $2,750 so existing veterans do not lose benefits after a change in state law (motion passed 3-0).

Board members asked staff for follow-up data: five years of highway overtime and maintenance costs, clarifications on landfill/transfer-station contracts and landfill-closure liabilities, Encumbrance details for recent Fire Department purchases, and updated personnel payroll calculations for department reassignments. Sanderson said staff will refine numbers and return with an updated draft and a list of proposed warrant articles before Budget Committee hearings scheduled later in January.

The board set a high priority on preparing warrant-article language for voter consideration (fire and highway apparatus, bridge/road CRF contributions, salt-shed funding and the sewer CWSRF appropriation among the items discussed). The selectmen planned to reconvene for continued budget deliberation at their next meeting and to present refined materials to the Budget Committee on Jan. 28–29.