Lincoln budget committee approves minutes, weighs nonprofit funding and a $13,000 rent request

The Lincoln budget committee approved the prior meeting minutes as amended and spent most of the session reviewing departmental requests and nonprofit appropriation proposals, asking staff for clearer expenditure reports before making final recommendations.

Committee chair S1 called for a vote on the minutes as amended; S2 responded “Aye,” and members signaled assent to approve the record as edited. The committee then turned to line-item reviews and departmental requests, with staff member S4 walking members through payroll lines, rent-related increases and the timing of year-end invoices and payroll.

S4 explained a department request to raise a rent-related line to $13,000, noting an outstanding billing and year-to-date expenditures of $8,542.79. “She would like to increase this budget to 1,300… so the total bond at the top instead of being 5,000 would be $68.75,” S4 said while clarifying the calculations and promising an updated expenditure report before the committee’s final vote.

Committee members and staff discussed payroll timing and an apparent discrepancy in reported percentage increases: the library line showed a roughly 6% increase while many other departments were budgeted at about 3%. S2 said the differing percentages arose from how the program printed the figures and asked staff to provide updated year-to-date expenses prior to the committee’s final recommendation.

S4 summarized nonprofit requests and service counts for several local providers and compared Lincoln’s support with nearby communities: CoHealth reported servicing 14–20 Lincoln residents in 2025; North Country Health and Hospital reported 40 patients and 913 visits; Voices Against Violence requested an increase to $4,000 having served 16 clients; the Bridal Project asked for $7,500 and reported serving 329 Lincoln residents; Penny Baker Community Health reported 8 patients and 155 visits. S4 said the American Red Cross asked not to complete the submission form but the select board elected to keep it on the funding list because of the organization’s response to recent fires.

Members repeatedly requested clearer, legible financial statements from departments — S4 said she would scan and re-send the detailed pages and provide an updated worksheet for the committee to cross-reference prior to the final vote. The committee did not take final votes on budget appropriations during the meeting and scheduled follow-up work and a joint session with the select board to resolve outstanding issues.

The committee’s next procedural step is to receive the corrected expenditure reports and then reconvene to vote on the committee-recommended budget items; no final appropriations were adopted during this session.